Alien Life Could Live In The Clouds Of 'Brown Dwarfs,' Scientists Say

Scientists have been searching and looking for extraterrestrial life in some planets just like the Earth. Currently, they discovered a new place to find alien life in the clouds of "failed stars" referred to as brown dwarfs.

A recent study indicates that alien life could exist in the upper layers of a brown dwarf's atmosphere. According to the scientist from the University of Edinburgh in the U.K., brown dwarfs have temperatures and pressures just like the planet Earth. There is a possibility that microbes can grow on the brown dwarfs.

Brown dwarfs are substellar objects that are made up of swirling gas. These occupy the mass range between the heaviest gas giants and the lightest stars. They are designated as types L, M, Y and T. They are also of different colors and would likely appear magenta or orange/red to the human eye.

Jack Yates, a planetary scientist, and his team examined a brown dwarf called WISE 0855-0714, which was discovered in March 2013. This is about 7 lightyears away from the Earth. They have used calculations that are developed by astronomer Carl Sagan, who searched for a possible life on Jupiter. Sagan had once thought that there were plankton-like organisms referred to as "sinkers" and balloon-like organisms called "floaters" that inhabited in the atmosphere of Jupiter. Sagan thought that these organisms did not need any hard ground to survive.

Yates and his team theorized that these organisms could also flourish on brown dwarfs that could live between the hot gasses lower down and the freezing outer layers close to space. They also examined the plankton living on Earth and determined whether the same forms of life in space could survive on a brown dwarf.

The team said that they argue that an atmosphere sitting above a potentially uninhabitable planetary surface may be cool enough to sustain life. They further said that by doing this, they define an atmospheric habitable zone (AHZ). They also thought that there are a lot of chemical components needed for life. These include hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen.

The team has chosen WISE 0855-0714 because it has the coolest temperature among other brown dwarfs and could have the same mild temperature as the planet Earth. There are approximately 1 billion brown dwarfs in the Milky Way and some are located closer to Earth, according to Science Alert. With these, there are a lot of possibilities to look for alien life in the future.