Ben from Tacoma, Washington wants to know...
Are Aliens REAL?
They could be! It kinda depends.
There are a LOT of stars out there. Scientists think that just in our Milky Way galaxy there are about 100 billion (100,000,000,000) stars.
That's a pretty normal number of stars for a galaxy. But then there are about 100 billion galaxies in the part of the Universe that we can see (we call it the "Observable Universe").
That means there are at least
Most stars have planets going around them, just like our sun. And scientists think that for every three or so star that's out there, there's at least one planet that is nice and cozy to live in: it's not too cold, and it's not too hot, and it's just right for there to be lakes and oceans on it, just like on Earth.
So, there are over 3,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets out there where aliens COULD be living.
But are there aliens on them?
Some people think it's SUPER LUCKY that Earth has life on it.
Like maybe when Earth was young, a random lightning bolt came down and zapped a few chemicals together to make the first blob of life.
It could be that the chances of this are SUPER RARE, and that it only happens once every three billion trillion (3,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) times, which is how many cozy planets there are. If that's true, then we might be the only things alive in the ENTIRE Universe!
That would make for a pretty lonely Universe, though. After all, it's always more fun when you find friends to play with.
- Oliver
Have a question for Oliver? Fill out this form!
Want to read more from Oliver? Check out:
New book! 