Will finding life in other worlds really be new?

DISCOVERY OF ALIEN LIFE WILL BRING HOPE

- YOGIN DEVAN

A WOMAN with an oil-filled clay lamp in her hand gingerly circumambulates small granite idols at a Chatsworth temple nine times, all the while reciting sacred verses dedicated to each of nine planets.

She is performing "bad luck prayers" to seek intervention from higher forces she believes dwells in these planets, either to break curses, remove evil spirits, or overcome perceived negative influences that are perceived to be causing misfortune. Ultimately, these prayers are aimed to restore blessings and bring about positive change in the devotee's life.

Ostensibly, this simple act of devotion and seeking divine blessings can be linked to the shrieks of delight emanating from a laboratory at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Scientists using data from the James Webb Space Telescope, have made an astounding discovery. They believe extraterrestrial life may be thriving beyond our solar system. And which means that interstellar movies such as Alien, ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind may not be pure fiction after all. There could be life on other distant planets.

Observations of a planet called K2-18b, and which is 124 light years from Earth, appear to reveal the chemical fingerprints of two compounds that, on Earth, are only known to be produced by life. While this would not amount to proof of alien biological activity, it could bring us closer to an answer to the question of whether we are alone in the universe or have cosmic cousins on other planets.

Indian civilisation has been a repository of knowledge since Vedic times, involving subjects such as mathematics, medicine, metaphysics and astronomy, all written in Sanskrit. These ancient learnings are being repackaged several thousand years later and are being presented as discoveries by Western scientists.