‘Another thirty to fifty years and we will know’ Are we the only ones in the universe? Is that why it is so eerily quiet in our part of the galaxy? Or do alien creatures, lightyears away, feel the warmth of a star just like we do? Lauded Professor of Astrochemistry Ewine van Dishoeck expects that all speculation about this will come to an end before the end of the century. Text: Sebastiaan van de Water Photography: Bram Belloni
WHAT WAS THERE
BEFORE THE
BEGINNING? 28 | New Scientist | Leiden2022
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o six-toed footprint on the moon, not even a cracking signal from the dark void. In the past seventy years, astronauts and astronomers have been unable to find a shred of evidence for the existence of extra-terrestrial life. The only voice that sometimes breaks the silence around our home planet is the echo of our own unanswered question: ‘Hello, is anyone there?’
Nevertheless, Leiden astronomer Ewine van Dishoeck is not disappointed. ‘I am a cautious person. As a student, I thought: “It may take many centuries to answer that big question.” ’ Since then, she has peered through imposing telescopes built on mountain tops. She discovered how and where new planets are born. She organised conferences on the atmospheric fingerprints that life forms leave in the universe.
