A new theory suggests that the best place to find alien life might be in the dust clouds of failed stars.
Failed stars or brown dwarfs are cosmic objects that are not massive enough to ignite nuclear fusion. NASA notes that they have a size between that of a giant planet like Jupiter and that of a small star. Because they do not emit much light, it was suspected that most of our universe is composed of brown dwarfs and they could constitute part of the "missing mass" problem faced by cosmology.
The researchers based their study on the hypothesis of US scientist Carl Sagan which theorized that life on Jupiter would take the form of enormous balloon-like life forms that float above the hot gasses on its surface, Express reported.
"You don't necessarily need to have a terrestrial planet with a surface," planetary scientist Jack Yates told Joshua Sokol at Science Mag.
The report added that as per their calculations, layers of the brown dwarfs upper atmospheres have the same temperatures and pressures as Earth. As such, it could host microbes that surf on thermal updrafts.
Science Alert reported that previous researches have revealed that a lot of the chemical ingredients for --- including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen are already present on brawn dwarfs.
For the study, WISE 0855-0714 was used, given that it's the coolest brown dwarf they have come across with so far. It was discovered in 2013 and situated at 7 million light years away from Earth.
Meanwhile, Daily Mail reported that the researchers estimate that one billion brown dwarfs exist in our Milky Way galaxy, with plenty relatively close by at around 32 light years away. This could only mean that we have a lot of places to look into in the search for alien life.
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