[Yasser]

Yasser  asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Dear Naked Scientists,

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/06aug_kepler2.htm?list1315750 

I have recently been informed that NASA's Kepler Mission has detected an exoplanet atmosphere (see above link for full article).

With breakthroughs in science, like the above, is it possible to estimate how long it will take scientists to confirm life, if any, on other planets?

It's a big question for a big occasion.
 
Best Regards
Yasser In Canada

What do you think?

[carreerslut]

Hmm...scientific breakthroughs aside.  I suggest you look around the house for some string, and then a tape measure.  Measure the string.  The answer is the equivalent of how long it will take to find life.  Hope this experiment clarifies the answer.

[Nizzle]

Having an atmosphere is just 1 prerequisite of the I-have-no-idea-how-many prerequisites are necessary for life to develop on a planet.

Therefore, the answer is that it will take I-have-no-idea-how-many years before we will confirm the presence of life on other planets.

But not to leave you completely empty handed: I think we puny earthlings will create life on other planets in our own solar system before finding alien life in deepspace...

[Stefanb]

Unless 2012 gets us first....

DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!

As Nizzle said, there are many prerequisites to make a planet "qualified" for us to live on it. We already found a planet we were so sure would work. It turned out, though, that the planet and its water mass was so large that its oceans were full of "heavy water". Strike one... Basically: the planets need to be in the perfect range- not too close, but not too far from the sun; it has to have water (H2O) and land; it needs to have soil that things can be grown in; and it has to be reachable. Oh and there's always the need for the planet not to have angry inhabitants with five times our technological capabilities.  []

[Don_1]

There will doubtless be life elsewhere in this universe, from micobes to monsters and all inbetween. Finding it is not so much a matter of time, as a matter of if.

[Pmb]

With breakthroughs in science, like the above, is it possible to estimate how long it will take scientists to confirm life, if any, on other planets?

No. In general it is impossible to predict when scientific breakthroughs will occur and thus impossible to make estimates. And since it is impossible to know now if life exists elsewhere it is also impossible to confirm its existance.

[syhprum]

I Think that in about ten years our technology will have developed to the extent where we can examine the atmosphere's of exo-planets to see if life similar to earth can exist.
If the conditions are right life will develop but I think the chances that any planet with intelligent life will be near enough for any useful communication to be established are pretty remote