NONFICTION
LEXILE 490
CLICK WORDS FOR MORE!
BRIAN SCHULTZ (ALIEN); INIGO CIA/FLICKR/GETTY IMAGES (BACKGROUND)
VOCABULARY extraterrestrial: from outer space solar system: the sun and everything that moves around it, including the planets orbit: travel around the sun, a planet, or something else zone: area galaxy: a very large group of stars
4 Scholastic Action | November 16, 2015
YES,
ALIENS
(probably)
EXIST For the first time in history, top scientists are saying it’s very likely that other living things exist in the universe. Experts are using high-tech tools to search faraway planets for signs of life. They think we could find it in your lifetime. BY LAUREN TARSHIS
TURN THE PAGE â www.scholastic.com/actionmag | November 16, 2015 5
I
t was just past 8 p.m. on October 30, 1938.
Music played on the radio. Then it stopped. A news story came on. A reporter said that aliens from Mars were attacking New York City! His voice cracked with fear as he described the scene. In the background, people screamed. Panic set in. Parents grabbed their kids and got ready to flee. People called the police. What was going on? Had aliens really landed on Earth? The answer, of course, was no. The report was fake. It was part of a radio play. The play was based on a book called The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells. Orson Welles produced the play. He had not meant to trick people. At the start of the show, an announcer said that the story was fiction. But some people missed the first few minutes. They were confused and scared. Later, news articles asked why so many the thought of life in outer space fascinates us. Were people just ready to believe?
Top: A newspaper from October 31, 1938; Above: Orson Welles performing on the radio
So Many Stars The thought of aliens has always gripped us. What might extraterrestrial life be like? Where might we find it? The universe is huge. Experts say there are
that has living things. So it’s a good place to start. How does Earth support life? Our sun is the star at the center of our solar system. Earth and other planets circle, or
about 300 sextillion stars. That’s the number
orbit, the sun. Our sun gives us heat and light.
3 followed by 23 zeros! There are more stars
Without these things, nothing could live.
than all the grains of sand on every beach and in every desert on Earth. How do we search for life in such a huge place? Earth is the only planet we know of
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Planets orbit many other stars too. Scientists are studying some of those planets. But not all of the planets could support life. Giant planets probably can’t support life
NY DAILY NEWS VIA GETTY IMAGES (PAPER); POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES (WELLES)
people were fooled. No one knows for sure. But
WHAT MIGHT AN ALIEN LOOK LIKE?
Science-fiction writers have created some dazzling aliens for books and movies. Who doesn’t love the Ewoks from Star Wars? (above)
COURTESY OF NOVA (LAND WHALE); LUCASFILM/20TH CENTURY FOX/THE KOBAL COLLECTION (EWOK)
This illustration was created by scientists who were trying to imagine a creature that might exist on a very dry and windy planet. The “land whale” would survive by filtering food from the air, just like a real whale filters tiny shellfish from ocean water.
as we know it. Huge planets, like Jupiter, are
That’s because their conditions are “just right.”
made of gas. They don’t have solid surfaces.
Scientists know the kind of planet they’re
Most experts also say that life can’t exist
looking for. The hard part is finding one.
without liquid water. That rules out planets that orbit close to their stars. They’re too hot. Water
The Hunt for Distant Planets
would boil away. And planets that are too far
Until about 100 years ago, there was only
from their stars are cold. Water would freeze.
one way to find objects in the sky. You stood on
Planets where life might exist are not too close or too far from their stars. Experts say these planets are in the “Goldilocks zone.”
the ground and looked through a telescope. Now scientists have better tools. The greatest discoveries in recent years have come TURN THE PAGE â www.scholastic.com/actionmag | November 16, 2015 7
from Kepler. This spacecraft has no people
Tiniest Speck of Life
on board. It searches our galaxy for planets.
Could a planet discovered by Kepler support
It sends these pictures to Earth.
life? If so, what would that life be like? Experts think we’ll know soon. Kevin Hand
The results have been great. Kepler has
works at NASA. This group runs the U.S. space
helped discover more than 1,000 planets.
program. “I think in the next 20 years, we will
Once scientists find a planet, they figure
find out we are not alone in the universe,”
out how big it is and how far it is from
says Hand. Think about what he’s saying. We
its star.
could find life in space during your lifetime.
Kepler has found some planets in the
No one knows what alien life might look
Goldilocks zone. Kepler-452b is one of them.
like. It might be just one germ. Or it could be
Experts identified it in July of this year. They
a creature we can’t even imagine.
say it’s more similar to Earth than any planet they have found so far. They’ve called it “Earth’s bigger, older cousin.”
Finding life in space, big or small, would be one of the greatest discoveries of all time. One day soon, experts say, it will happen. •
SEARCHING FOR PLANETS
The Kepler spacecraft (above) has photographed more than a thousand planets.
The planet at left, Kepler-10b, is so hot that it could have an ocean of lava larger than the Pacific Ocean. Life as we know it couldn’t survive there.
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PAGE 8: COURTESY OF NOVA (PLANET); COURTESY OF WENDY STENZE/KEPLER MISSION/NASA (KEPLER SPACECRAFT) PAGE 9: STOCKTREK/GETTY IMAGES
Right now, Kepler is taking pictures of space.
