Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan Quits NASA For ‘New Adventures’

First Posted: Jan 02, 2017 02:30 AM EST
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Chief scientist of the American space agency NASA Ellen Stofan has resigned, the space organization has "quietly" revealed. According to NASA, the reason Stofan has left is because she wants to embark on new adventures.

According to Slash Gear, it appears that Ellen Stofan officially made her departure from NASA on or around Dec. 20. The American space agency confirmed the news with an interview post on Tumblr. Ellen Stofan has been known for her enthusiasm for the search for life beyond our planet, especially on Mars.

In the interview, Ellen Stofan also added that she enjoyed the opportunity of working on several fun challenges with NASA. The now ex-chief scientist also said that she believes the next big thing at the space agency is the search for life beyond Earth. Moreover, regardless of whether such a discovery takes place on Mars, on an ocean world like Jupiter's Moon Europa or one of the newly discovered exoplanets, the answer to whether life exists outside of Earth will be answered in the near future.

"People have long wondered if we are alone, and we are now actually going to answer that question in the next few decades," Ellen Stofan said. "We are exploring Mars, where it is very likely that life evolved at around the same time life evolved here on Earth. Conditions on Mars deteriorated after about a billion years, so life either went underground, or became extinct. It will likely take future Mars astronauts to find the best evidence of Mars life."

As per Space.com, NASA has still not come up with any formal succession plan. The main question now is what the space organization has planned for the next few months, and whether it already has a successor in mind. Incidentally, Ellen Stofan's exit from NASA has happened right before the new presidential administration comes into power, which also brings up many questions about the future of the space agency and the budgets it well get.

See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone

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