Astrobiology is the science that studies life on other planets. This scientific discipline combines knowledge from biology, chemistry and astronomy, attracting the world's leading researchers (and, incidentally, large sums of money from NASA and private investors). But what exactly are astrobiologists looking for? When is it time for us to open the champagne?
The alien must be complex and focused in appearance
The first thing that distinguishes living from non-living is the visible structure. Living organisms - from the simplest bacteria to the huge sequoia tree - consist of many parts, thanks to which they function. Your hands, heart, spleen, mitochondria, eyelashes, neurons and toes - such different parts of the body work together to enable you to move, eat, think and survive. Now let's look at some rock. Even the most beautiful rock cannot compare in the number of components with the simplest bacterial cell, which is capable of dividing and multiplying.
Living organisms are constantly in the process of life: they eat, grow, reproduce. Lightly press down on a bug with your finger and you will see how it tries with all its might to survive. Look at a squirrel - what makes it jump from branch to branch? Or a flower - what motivates it to turn after the sun and receive nutrients from the soil?
Not only the whole living organism, but also each part of it pursues the same goal - survival and reproduction. It is this combination of complexity and apparent purposefulness (known as adaptability) that is defining criterion of life .
And if we get our hands on a photograph of an alien, we will look for that same adaptability in it. Based on the structure, we will definitely understand the difference between a pile of stones and a living alien creature. By the way, the only way to obtain such an internal structure is through natural selection.
Natural selection must act on aliens
Natural selection occurs when an organism satisfies three conditions: variability, heredity, and differential survival.
Let's take a fictional view. Some pussies have longer eye stalks than others (this is variability). Pussycats with long eyestalks give birth to the same children (inheritance of genetic traits). Pussycats with long eyestalks have the opportunity to look out further from their methane burrows, notice a predator faster, protect their young better, and therefore have more offspring (this is a different survival rate associated with variability). As a result, the puss population will have longer eyestalks.
During this process, the structure of a living organism is formed: in each generation, organisms with individual traits are selected that better cope with the function of reproduction.
Over time, the population begins to consist of individuals ideally designed for reproduction. This is possible precisely because the original criteria of natural selection remain unchanged.
It cannot be otherwise - if you start assembling a car, changing the drawing at each stage, you will not get a car. For the way organisms of each species are structured, we should thank not the creator, but natural selection.
The selection criteria are so stable that the structure of organisms itself implies the transfer of genes to future generations. That is why a species in which individuals sacrifice themselves to save their species does not survive.
A living organism is selfish by default, and the best way to pass on its genes is to reproduce, regardless of the needs of other organisms. Yes, in nature we see some examples of self-sacrifice and cooperation, but only when cooperation will bring benefits and the sacrifice will be useful to relatives. Relatives have a common set of genes, so the bee sacrifices itself for the sake of the queen so that she produces 100 more individuals with the genes of the deceased.
There is a strict calculation in selection, including in the matter of self-sacrifice - organisms have a program that calculates when sacrifice makes sense and when it does not. So evolutionary biologists work with mathematical models that can accurately predict how many offspring a wasp population will eat over a given period of time. This algorithmic precision of natural selection also serves astrobiologists well.
Let us recall our previous conclusion: life is unique due to its structure. The only way to obtain such a device without a creator and a blueprint is through natural selection. Aliens, therefore, must also be the product of natural selection.
Natural selection operates according to strictly defined rules and produces certain types of living organisms. Thus, astrobiologists can use the theory of natural selection and evolutionary mathematical models to predict appearance of possible aliens.
Are there any exceptions?
It is impossible to obtain a living organism without natural selection. Even a post-organic computerized alien species would be a product of it. But let's try anyway.
Let's imagine multiplying molecules carrying a set of genes on another planet. Let these molecules create their own copies (there is already heredity), but the copies are absolutely perfect (no variability or differential survival). This will no longer be natural selection.
Without variability, molecules will remain the same, will not adapt to anything, and will not evolve into anything more complex. Finding alien bacteria or alien bears on other planets requires the universe to play with life of all shapes and sizes. Regular copying will not provide room for experimentation. Moreover, most likely, the existence of our molecules will be very short-lived: without natural selection, they will not be able to cope with the challenges of the external environment and will soon disappear from the face of their planet.
If natural selection works everywhere, then for other planets we can use the same tools for predicting the development of life that we use on Earth.
Early work in astrobiology extrapolated our knowledge of the origin of life on Earth. This approach limited our vision to certain criteria, such as the presence of DNA or carbon-based life forms that would not survive on other planets. But natural selection is universal, it does not depend on DNA (do you remember that Charles Darwin knew nothing about genes?), carbon chemistry or the presence of water. Natural selection only needs a few conditions and it is ready to create life.
Possible alien - Octomite
Let's once again imagine a photograph of an alien, its appearance, its structure, which would suit the external environment. In this grainy image, we won't see the number of eyes or limbs, or distinguish its color. Evolutionary theory is incapable of making predictions of this level. But thanks to natural selection, we know that the form, goals and evolutionary path of this creature must be strictly coordinated.
The editors of Aeon came up with and depicted a possible alien (and even gave it a name - “octomite”).
It is made up of different parts working together for survival, reproduction and development, each of which can separate and continue its own existence.
This being is an entire hierarchy of parts, each level of which is connected to the higher levels, where each part works on separate tasks but is dependent on other parts.
If we received a photo of this octomite in reality, the creature would seem extremely exotic to an untrained viewer. But an evolutionary biologist would see a lot of familiar things. This is why evolutionary biology is becoming one of the most important tools of astrobiologists today.
When you hear the words “alien” and “alien,” your head often conjures up a stereotypical image of a humanoid creature in a silver spacesuit with a disproportionately large head and large black eyes without whites. However, not everything is so simple.
Analysis of eyewitness accounts, photographs, films and other evidence shows that even those aliens that resemble people (that is, humanoids) differ greatly in height and appearance. What then can we say about those cases when the aliens are not humanoids? Let's try to consider the most typical cases.
So, humanoids. First of all, there are strong differences in height. The fluctuations here reach two meters. For example, if in the cases of the Roswell accident, as well as in the case of the accident in Tibet, the height of the creatures did not exceed 130 centimeters (but was not less than 90 centimeters), then in some other cases the humanoids seen reached three meters in height.
And in some cases, eyewitnesses say that the height was quite normal, no more than two meters. Some fluctuations, of course, were observed, but this is also natural for earthlings. Let us remember that people of very large stature or, conversely, small but stocky people have greater physical strength and endurance than people of average height and build. So why not assume that just such pilots, strong and resilient, were selected for space flights?
In the face, the eyes attract the most attention. In creatures from one to two meters tall, they either resemble ordinary humans or have a feature, namely, they do not have proteins. There are two versions on this matter. According to one of them, these are not eyes, but adaptation devices, somewhat similar to our tinted glasses and contact lenses.
The devices allow you to regulate the influence of light and the environment on the eyes. According to the second version, the eyes of aliens are fundamentally different in structure from ours and are more reminiscent of the organs of vision of a bee, fly and some other insects (faceted vision).
They include many more sensory cells and allow the brain to not only send a better image, but also process it differently. The fact is that with fractional perception of the image, the number of “frames” increases, and the picture turns out to be more complete and consistent, as when the film is slowly scrolled, and the creature’s reaction does not suffer from this.
As for the remaining parts of the face and head, in general they are very similar to those on Earth, but in some cases they are slightly shifted, for example, low-hanging ears, a “smoothed” chin, and a massive back of the head. Often they generally talk about the head being too large compared to the body. Sometimes parts of the face seem disproportionately small: nose, ears. And finally, there are often descriptions where the head of the aliens (like the whole body) is devoid of hair.
Leather comes in different colors, but these colors, as a rule, do not go beyond our ideas of what skin can be. In other words, no one has encountered creatures with blue or green skin. Often the aliens' skin is quite dark in color, and, as a rule, this coincides with the lack of hair on the body.
To what has been said, it is necessary to add that in this case the muscles of the creatures are weakly expressed. There are analogues of biceps, but there are almost no muscles in other parts of the body. Perhaps they simply lost their functions and atrophied. But in other cases, a different correspondence is observed: with fair skin and “earthly” facial features, the outlines of the body look quite proportional.
Limbs almost always look proportional to body size. Disproportions that would make the aliens look like monkeys are not found in the descriptions known to us. Although in some cases the arms are long, almost to the knees. Most often, there are five fingers on the hands and feet; One of the features is that the nails are greatly reduced and sometimes almost invisible (a detail seen on those aliens whose height is approximately 1 meter). In addition, there are signs of syndactyly (webbing between the fingers).
Among other features of the body structure, it should be noted the absence of other limbs, rudimentary and innovative, for example, a tail and something similar. There are also no outwardly expressed sexual characteristics, but this rare observation was made from photographs that may be fake. This refers to the aliens who died near Roswell. Unfortunately, the results of the autopsy performed at that time remained inaccessible to us (with the exception of some facts), and therefore nothing definite can be said on this matter.
The clothes in the descriptions and in the photographs are quite monotonous. As a rule, this is a jumpsuit that resembles a light spacesuit. He reveals his hands, but apparently his feet do not. The helmet is not found in any description. Most likely, if there is one, then it is left in the ship after analyzing the composition of the atmosphere, which turns out to be breathable.
The jumpsuit is tight-fitting, the material, according to some descriptions, resembles stretch. The color of the suit is most often described as silver, which is quite easy to explain. Clothing made of a special material of this color protects against strong radiation and high temperatures, which is also used on Earth (by fire fighters and rescue teams in areas of nuclear power plant accidents).
An interesting and not unfounded assumption has been made that some of the aliens are not living beings, but cyborgs, that is, cybernetic organisms. This follows from the peculiarities of their internal structure: the absence of digestive and genital organs, the strange composition of the blood. The assumption, in particular, concerns the pilots of an aircraft that crashed near Roswell. But it also needs to be checked.
In conclusion, a few words need to be said about the reasons for the differences between aliens and earthlings. If we make the assumption that evolution on different planets under coinciding conditions proceeds in a similar way (as the Umich residents claim in their letters), then the appearance of the aliens should undoubtedly be similar to the appearance of earthlings. But since technically and in general in terms of development they were much ahead of us, then their civilization should be much older than ours.
Thus, the aliens went through a development path of perhaps several tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of years, and the conditions of existence, the environment and the influence of their own culture on them also led to a partial change in appearance. Most likely, we need to talk not about mutations, but about a longer process - evolution. Mutations could only occur in the event of global catastrophes, such as nuclear war or large-scale accidents. This would easily explain the dark skin color and lack of hair. But we don’t know anything about this yet.
In the case of creatures that do not resemble humans, everything is much more complicated. In the case of observation of giant aliens, according to the description, they differ from us only in that they have a three-meter height and some abilities that are inaccessible to us. In addition, there are features in the structure of the body, for example, in the location of the organs of vision and hearing.
Somewhat similar creatures were spotted in the village of Nekrasovo, on the outskirts of Kostroma. On May 26, 1996, Eva Leonidovna Piskunova, one of the residents of this village, saw a three-meter man through the window of her house.
However, he seemed human only at first glance. His body was enormously thick, and his head was shaped like a perfect ball. The “skin” on the head was of an indeterminate color, and E.L. Piskunova did not notice the face. The ball only sparkled with blue, yellow and white sparks. The witness's impression was that the creature's arms and legs did not stand out when walking. It moved along the street for some time, and then disappeared behind a rowan bush. Eva Leonidovna, who came out of her stupor, ran to look at him, but the creature disappeared, as if it had evaporated.
Three-meter height is found in another description, this time from Nebit-Dag, in Turkmenistan. Twice, with an interval of almost 40 years, the residents of this city saw creatures of a strange and even terrible appearance, which were clearly not humanoids and had never been seen on Earth before or after these cases.
The first time they were noticed by Lyudmila Vartanyants, then still a student at the Ashgabat Medical Institute, the second (in 1994) by another resident of Nebit-Dag with her son. The description in both cases is the same: a height of approximately three meters, surrounding bright light and an ugly head, which is a jumble of “eyes, trunks, mouths against a background of grayish-green skin” (according to L. Vartanyants).
The creatures were also anomalies from the point of view of their influence on the psyche. In both cases, even before their appearance, they inspired unaccountable fear. Lyudmila lost consciousness when they appeared and subsequently discovered strong changes in her psyche and physical ailment, so she had to miss a semester at the institute.
But the strangest thing is that she, completely unprepared, was able to pass the exams with excellent marks, as if someone had “put” information into her mind. On the second visit, both witnesses noted that one of the creatures had a flask in its hands, into which it put something, collecting it from the ground. Both in the middle of the century and in 1994 there were two creatures. These facts have not yet received an explanation.
Even taller creatures were recorded in 1989 in the Vologda region. Their height was approximately 4 meters. Aliens similar in description visited Dzerzhinsk back in 1979, or rather, a pioneer camp nearby. The dimensions were described with varying degrees of accuracy, but some details in the descriptions of appearance were the same in both cases, for example, round metal plates on the “chest”.
Over the past decades, interest in representatives of alien civilizations has grown significantly. To get started, we recommend that you read this article:
Before considering their main types, it is worth understanding who the aliens are and what is their main difference?
Who are aliens and aliens?
This is not a tautology, as it might seem. All types of extraterrestrial civilizations can be divided into 2 groups: aliens and aliens. Who is who?
Aliens- These are creatures that are friendly towards earthlings.
Aliens- These are hostile creatures.
The actions taking place on our planet go far beyond the imagination of any science fiction writer. A distorted perception of reality and means that control people’s consciousness block access to this information, which allows unenlightened humanity to be subjected to manipulation and control with impunity.
Many Hollywood films about aliens are not fiction, but reality, which we mistake for a fairy tale...
The main types of aliens and aliens
Here we characterize only a small part of extraterrestrial civilizations, both destructive and constructive, that regularly visit our planet. The information is given for the purpose of familiarization and expansion of intellectual knowledge.
Essassani
An evolving human-zeta hybrid; lives 500 light years in the direction of the constellation Orion, but on a different time line and is 300 years ahead of Earth in time; height 150 cm, gray skin; the head is slightly larger than a human, the nose and mouth are small, the eyes are large black; females have white hair. Their type of evolution is very similar to that of the Earth or Pleiadians.
Lyrans
Lyrans - A species of aliens related to humanity from the constellation Lyra. As the legend says: the Lyrian race ascended to the fourth dimension, and those who, for some reason, remained, populated our planet. Having undergone repeated modifications due to genetic mutations, their physical skills have improved; the height of some individuals reaches three meters, they have a humanoid appearance with the features of birds and animals, which are reflected in Egyptian mythology.
Pleiadians
The Pleiadians arrived from the constellation Taurus at 400 sv. years from Earth. It is called "Seven Sisters"; our Sun is the eighth star of the Pleiades. Our planet has been regularly visited for thousands of years; are, like the Lyrans, a related species to us. There are also light and energy beings living there, the “Council of 12”, which rules all the planets of the Pleiadian civilization.
Orions
89% of the race comes from Vegans, and the remaining 11% from Lyrans. The appearance is very similar to that of a human, the skin is dark, but a tenth of the population is blond and Caucasian. They are aggressive by nature and are used to settling disputes through military confrontation. Their favorite battle is between good and evil, Light and Darkness, where the bright and enlightened Orions fight against their fellows, obsessed with the thirst for power, immensely cruel and aggressive.
Cantarians
Thin-material hybrids of people and Sirians, whose purpose is to serve people as guardians or mentors-teachers; luminaries of sacred geometric science; Planetary orbits are controlled using sound. Their homeland is considered to be Sirius B, where the leading space training center for higher evolution is located.
Aliens from Alpha Centauri
Arcturians
Arcturians are aliens from the constellation Bootes, located 36 St. years from Earth and visible in the northern hemisphere. Arcturus is located at the tail of the Big Dipper. They have reached the fifth-dimensional spectrum of frequencies and are superior in development to all civilizations of our galaxy. Very fragile, 90-120 cm tall, look like twins with a greenish tint and huge, almond-shaped eyes; Life expectancy is on average 400 years. Interact with the environment through telekinesis; their thinking is 100 times faster than human thinking. There are many underground bases on Earth. They control energies through various crystals.
Andromedans
A non-physical race of angelic winged beings of the Beta constellation system, which is considered the galactic center of thought. They went beyond the physical limitations of existence and established contact with the Earth through Light.
Life on Mars
This type of alien has evolved to higher dimensions of the frequency spectrum, and it is not possible to detect it using conventional methods. The Lemurians were at enmity with the Martians, hence the myth that Mars is a warring planet. Below the surface of the planet live non-humanoid races similar to terrestrial ants and praying mantises.
Life on Venus
In the depths of this planet live grandiose, subtle-material aliens. This is a world where the struggle for survival is completely absent. The world of Venus is incredibly colorful and replete with diversity. Crystalline mountains, sparkling rainbow oceans, rich vegetation and natural harmony of all life forms.
Alien types
- Dragons. A species of reptile with a repulsive characteristic appearance. About 1,000,000 years ago they captured the Earth and settled under its surface in the thickness of the crust. As a result of this war, almost the entire surface of the planet was damaged, the climate worsened, pole shifts, floods and earthquakes occurred, but the continent called Atlantis received the most damage. The homeland of dragons is in the higher dimensions, in the Orion system, far beyond the borders of our galaxy.
This is a species of highly developed and benevolent beings, which was divided during the evolution of Universe No. 3 about 225 million years ago and the entities that did not undergo transformation (a picture similar to ours today) were expelled. Having settled on Earth, they influenced humanity in the most destructive way, subjecting its DNA to correction and changes. They still consider themselves the rightful masters of the planet and people.
They are unsurpassed specialists in the field of experimental genetics. They combined dragon and human genes. As a result, a hybrid “Draco” (or lizard) was bred, which is more than 2 meters tall, with a humanoid body and a reptilian face covered with scales. Dinosaurs were also subjected to experiments. As a result, many creatures were bred that threaten human existence (the Chupacabra, for example).
- and the Nephilim. Highly developed technological soulless creatures from the Sirius-A system, who broke away from their native civilization. They originate from the lineage of Elohim, descended from the Elohei, a superior race of divine-type beings that oversee and control humanity. They move in space on a giant ship-planet Nibiru, which is much larger in size than Jupiter and is, as it may not sound shocking, a planet of our solar system.
They capture underdeveloped planets in order to completely gut their resources, gradually destroy all living things and leave them only when in the place of flourishing planets there remains only a dead desert without signs of life.
This species is closely related by cooperation with the Draco hybrids and in appearance they are very similar to each other. 950 thousand years ago, a successful process of genetic crossing of humans and Anunnaki took place, as a result of which the resulting Nephilim hybrid was far superior to humans intellectually, but it completely lacked spirituality.
- Zetas, draco-zetas. The Zetas' homeland is the planet Draconis, part of the Reptilian Federation. Masters of black magic and satanic rituals. They can easily change their appearance to suit a person and remotely control and manipulate people. They themselves look like aliens are usually drawn - with a disproportionately large head and black eyes, skin color closer to gray, 120 cm tall.
The bulk of kidnappings are carried out by this particular type of alien (Zetas), who follow a global program of enslaving earthlings. Monstrous experiments are being carried out on them, which, oddly enough, are coordinated with the human World Government, which directly governs all of humanity.
Draco hybrids are distinguished by an exorbitant thirst for power and an unwillingness to obey cosmic uniform laws. They have the rare ability to disguise themselves as light creatures and skillfully process any information.
As mentioned above, this is only a small part of the alien representatives that visit our planet.
Modern science fiction never ceases to amaze viewers with the variety of alien species that can exist on other planets. Usually these are green men with big eyes or arachnid-like headless monsters who strive to take over our planet.
But let’s not go into fantasies, but based on real scientific data, let’s try to imagine what the inhabitants of other planets might look like. Scientists from Oxford University offered their vision of the aliens and published their work in the International Journal of Astrobiology.
They suggested that organisms on other planets could be formed according to the theory of evolution, taking into account the natural selection of species.
In our paper, we proposed an alternative approach to hypothetical astrobiology, that is, using evolutionary theory to create models that are completely independent of terrestrial conditions, said Sam Levine, a researcher from the department of zoology at Oxford.
The main feature of the approach is that theoretical models of this kind can be applied to silicon life forms, aliens that do not have DNA or breathe nitrogen, the scientists explained.
As is known, species complexity arose on Earth in connection with basic transitions, for example, when a group of individual organisms evolved into an organism of a higher order - when cells became multicellular organisms.
One of the types of aliens that scientists have proposed is the Octomite. This is a complex alien that includes a hierarchy of beings, where at each level the beings have common interests, so their conflict is prevented. Different parts of such a creature may have different tasks, division of labor, but it is still a mutually beneficial cooperation, scientists have suggested.
The authors presented a number of possible alien species that are at different levels of development. Image "A" represents a simple replicating molecule, with no visible structure, which may or may not be subject to natural selection.
Under the letter "B" is an incredibly simple, cell-like entity that exactly competes for survival with other species, according to scientists.
Image "C" shows an alien with complex parts that must function together. The authors of the work suggested that such a creature was subjected not only to species selection, in which it “outperformed” its competitors, but also changed significantly, i.e., mutated during its life.
We still can't tell if the aliens will walk on two legs or have big green eyes. But we believe evolutionary theory gives us a unique additional tool to try to understand what aliens will look like, Sam Levine added.
If we take into account the fact that alien organisms will develop according to the evolutionary system, then at a certain period they will be able to resemble us - organisms from Earth. Like humans, they will consist of a hierarchy of beings collaborating to produce a new form of life. At every level of the organism there will be mechanisms to eliminate conflict, maintain cooperation and functionality.
We still cannot say with certainty whether we are alone in the Universe, but if we are not alone, then now we have taken a small step in searching for an answer to the question of what our cosmic neighbors will look like, scientists concluded.
Exist, what do they look like? Indirect evidence of their existence is the fact that almost every description of aliens made by eyewitnesses can be attributed to one of several types.
Nordic type
Representatives of this type are similar to people, but are very tall - up to three meters. They have blond hair and skin, and an athletic build.
A similar incident happened to Latvian resident R.A. Avdeeva. She was in the Ogre region, walking along a forest path to her parents’ farm. Coming out into a small clearing, the woman suddenly saw her mother ahead, and also... herself with her daughter in her arms. All three stood motionless.
Avdeeva watched as three creatures, just over one and a half meters tall, wearing tight-fitting white overalls and helmets with visors, emerged from the forest. All three had human faces. Approaching the women's doubles in the clearing, the trio looked at them for a while, then turned and disappeared into the forest again. The doubles melted into thin air.
The woman continued on her way. Behind the trees, she noticed a glowing red dome with a radius of about five meters, enclosed in a transparent yellowish dome of an even larger size. Frightened, Avdeeva rushed to run towards the farm. After some time, she looked back and saw a flying saucer surrounded by radiance slowly rising into the sky...
Another case took place in the Kyrgyz village of Aleksandrovka. Three schoolgirls met a huge man in a shiny gray jumpsuit on the street. Suddenly, before the girls’ eyes, the stranger turned into the grandfather of one of the girlfriends. He invited the schoolgirls into the house and treated them to cake. After some time, “grandfather” got up and left. The front door opened, and apparently the real grandfather entered the house. The girls wanted to treat him to cake, but the table was empty...
According to researchers, representatives of the alien “intelligence” specifically take on the appearance of people, often well known to the contactee. Apparently, they are afraid of scaring a person with their true appearance, or they hope that this will make it easier to make contact. If we are talking about aliens in general, and not about some other entities...
