"We're so close" British astronomer: Space telescope will help us detect alien life

Humanity will discover alien life on distant worlds in the coming years, a top British astronomer has predicted.

Professor Sasha Hinkley, associate professor of astrophysics at the University of Exeter, said it was becoming 'increasingly possible' that telltale signs of extraterrestrial life would be detected 'within its lifetime'.

He said instruments such as the powerful $10 billion (£7.4 billion) James Webb Space Telescope are on the verge of detecting 'biofirms' - atmospheres on exoplanets with gases emitted by life, such as oxygen, that could indicate life.

The scientist's comments come after a working group of experts from the UK, US and Switzerland insisted that alien life will be found on thousands of worlds in the next 10 to 20 years, in what would be the biggest discovery in human history. .

Prof Hinkley said: "The likelihood of life existing in some form in the universe is quite high. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that it is increasingly likely that the discovery of life on an exoplanet will happen within a lifetime mine.'

But the astrophysicist said that even if tell-tale signs of life were discovered on distant worlds, it would not necessarily mean an encounter with extraterrestrials.

"To be clear, the discovery of life on another planet does not necessarily mean that there is an alien civilization on another planet, nor that we will have some form of communication with such life forms," ??he added in the article . his for The Spectator.