what if Earth and Mars switched places?

Are aliens real?

- That's a great question.

This is a question where I can just come right out

and tell you the answer.

Are aliens real?

Nobody knows.

At least not yet.

But even though it's not known whether aliens are real,

that's not the end of it.

There are so many interesting things to think about here.

First of all, think about what it is

that might make you wonder about aliens.

Maybe, like most people,

you've seen aliens as characters in a movie

or a show that you watch.

But some people wonder about aliens

because they've seen something strange in real life.

Something they felt they couldn't explain.

Like if someone notices a strange light flying in the sky

which doesn't quite seem like an airplane.

They might wonder, could it be an alien.

This one turns out to have been a rocket launch by SpaceX.

Or imagine you saw these lights.

You might think, whoa, what is that flying there?

It turns out this is a special type of airplane,

a B2 stealth plane.

When you see something surprising in the sky

and you're not sure what it is,

it is tempting to think

is this?

Could it be aliens?

There's almost always a simpler explanation though.

But if there are alien beings from another planet

somewhere out there, it's really exciting to think about.

What would they look like?

Would they have any advanced technology?

And would they be nice to us?

Even though nobody knows whether aliens actually exist

somewhere out there,

there are scientists who are least trying to find this out.

SETI, or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,

is the name of a group of scientists

who use telescopes and other equipment?

to look and listen to the universe around us.

Their idea is that if there are aliens out there,

they're probably living on planets

that are so far away from us

that they can easily visit the earth.

So, these scientists aren't looking around

for alien spaceships.

Instead the scientists at SETI are assuming

that any aliens out there

might be trying to send us things like radio signals

or other ways to try to talk to us long distance.

So far though, the scientists at SETI

have been looking and listening for over 35 years,

and they found no aliens.

Which makes scientists wonder about a big question.

If there are aliens out there,

why haven't we found them yet?

After all, if there's life on our planet

including intelligent life like us,

couldn't there be an intelligent life on other planets?

What do you think?

Do you think there are aliens somewhere out there?

I think it's tempting to assume

that there must be alien life somewhere out there.

But scientists know

there are lots of different possibilities.

For example, maybe there are intelligent aliens out there

who simply choose not to send messages to other planets.

Or maybe there's alien life out there,

but it's just not intelligent life.

For example, it could be that

there's lots of alien life out there

but it's more something like alien plants and alien animals

rather than intelligent aliens that can talk to us.

Some scientist points out, there's even the possibility

that the earth might be the only planet with life.

It's hard for us to know, and maybe only time will tell.

But what if we never find any alien life?

Or never even find out?

Would that be disappointing?

May be, but personally, I don't think so.

I think that thing that gets so many of us excited

about alien life is the idea of seeing something strange

and new.

Something we never even imagined before.

It turns out the very planet we all live on

is full of strange and exciting things.

New things that you've probably never seen.

Even I as a grown up, I'm still being amazed by new things

I never knew about.

So many different creatures that look like aliens

but live right here on earth.

And alien-looking places too.

That's all for this question.