NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration


Ask an Astrobiologist
"Is the high radiation environment of Europa likely to preclude the formation and evolution of life there?"
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  1. Question

    Everyone has shown evidence that life could exist on other planets. What evidence is there that tell us that life doesn't exist in space?

    There is, as you note, a great deal of information suggesting that life as we know it could exist on some planets beyond our own Earth -- but there is no direct evidence of extraterrestrial life. This is a case, however, where absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In other words, there is no evidence that life does not exist beyond the Earth. We just don't have the tools yet to detect it, even on our close neighbor Mars.

    David Morrison
    NAI Senior Scientist

    October 18, 2004