SHOCK CLAIM: Aliens DO EXIST and they 'live in OUR solar system'

ALIENS exist and are likely to be discovered in our solar system 

within the next decade, a top space scientist has sensationally 

claimed.

Groundbreaking research has led experts to conclude environments on other planets are capable of sustaining life.

Conclusive proof of extra-terrestrial beings may even arrive before the end of the next decade, they think. 

Foundations for the astonishing claim lie on the planet Europa - Jupiter’s sixth orbiting moon.

The star - around 390 million miles from Earth - is one of few within the reach of man to catch the attention of scientists who think it supports life.

Dr Kevin Hand, astrobiologist and planetary scientist at America’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) believes an answer to the age-old question ‘are we alone?’ could be around the corner.

He said missions to the surface of Europa have revealed clues which indicate the presence of liquid water in a form which could support life.

He said: “We may one day be able to discover if there are signs of organic or possible life on Europa. 

“Images show there could be possible life on Europa.”

Experiments and observations at the surface of Europa have led experts to believe it has a liquid ocean which runs 100 km deep.

While other planets have been found to contain water, it is usually in the form of ice kept hundreds of degrees below freezing by harsh planetary environments.

However all clues now point towards Europa harbouring an ocean similar to Earth’s with enough energy to drive complex chemical reactions essential for life.

Dr Hand and his team based in California said a more detailed mission to the planet is being planned within the next 10 years.

He said: “The question of whether life exists beyond Earth is one of humanity’s most profound and unanswered questions.

“Just about anywhere we go upon Earth and find liquid water we find life, we know now of oceans beyond Earth - and these are oceans of liquid water.

“Our study of life on Earth leads us to conclude some of these worlds are inhabitable and even inhabited.

“The next mission [to Europa] maybe in the 2020s, and hopefully then we will get the real dream of dreams.”

However he warned not to expect little green men with the bulk of extra-terrestrial life likely to consist of tiny microbes.

The basis for his claims are based on research over the past 10 years into creatures discovered in the deepest reaches of Earth’s seas.

In 2005 Dr Hand joined film director James Cameron in an expedition to the Mariana Trench and the Challenger Deep - two of the most hidden ocean territories.

The Challenger Deep, located to the southwest of Guam, is the deepest known point in Earth’s seabed lying almost 11,000 metres beneath the sea surface.

The Mariana Trench or Marianas Trench, found in the western Pacific Ocean, falls to a similar depth and is also apparently too secluded to support life.

However the mission found both regions to be teeming with tiny ‘chemosynthetic’ organisms capable of surviving without sunlight or an obvious food source.

Scientists concluded the organisms - amphipods - use chemicals and energy found at the bottom of the ocean to survive.

Dr Hand said: “These organisms utilise chemicals and energy at the bottom of the ocean, and this is what we think could be happening on Europa.

“This is powered without sunlight under incredible pressure and in incredible darkness and we found that in arguably the most extreme environments life is not only living, it is a thriving ecosystem.

“This kind of environment is what we think may be similar to that on Europa.

“My team is studying microbes as we think they may be the same sort of microbes which might be found on Europa.”

A previous mission to the planet discovered strange patterns on its surface which suggest the presence of liquid water beneath.

Scientists also detected a bizarre sequence of magnetic pulses which indicate movement under its one kilometre-thick crust.

Similar findings have been made on the planet Enceladus - one of Jupiter’s largest orbiting moons.

Its surface was found to be riddled with fissures and crustal deformations which indicate, like Europa, the presence of a liquid ocean.

Space explorers encountered plumes of water erupting from the surface of the planet found to contain silica, methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

Dr Hand said: “Silica found in the water suggests circulating water at the bottom of the ocean similar to that found on Earth.”

Dr Hand said life on other planets may follow a similar pattern to Earth but are likely to be vastly different.

While all living things are created from base molecules DNA, RNA and amino acids, extra-terrestrial life may be built from entirely new compounds, he added.

He said: “Life seems to take similar subunits and link them together into larger molecules.

“Even if we don’t know what these are we now have the tools to look for patterns that might be linked in nature without biology [but purely through chemical reactions].”

He is convinced huge inroads into the search for life outside Earth will be made before the end of the next decade.

The findings are pivotal in answering questions which have puzzled mankind for centuries.

“Oceans on extra-solar planets should [be found] in the next decade or so, we could potentially see chemical signs of life in any extra-solar planetary atmosphere,” Dr Hand said.

“This gives me hope that a second habitable environment may exist in these ocean worlds beyond Earth.

“We hope to make contact with beautiful microscopic jellyfish like creatures in a decade or so.

“We are yet to understand whether or not biology works beyond Earth, our studies lead us to believe it should work.

“For the first time in the history of humanity we can do this great experiment in the search for life beyond Earth.”