SETI Astronomers say there is life out there

Appealing for continued funding to research life beyond Earth, two scientists told Congress that there is definitely life out there.




Newly discovered planet

Dan Werthimer, director of the SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, told the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Wednesday that the possibility of extraterrestrial microbial life is "close to 100 percent."

Werthimer said: "In the last 50 years, evidence has steadily mounted that the components and conditions we believe necessary for life are common and perhaps ubiquitous in our galaxy. The possibility that life has arisen elsewhere, and perhaps evolved intelligence, is plausible and warrants scientific inquiry."

Werthimer's colleague Seth Shostak told the committee: “The chances of finding it I think are good and if that happens it will happen in the next 20 years depending on the financing."