Lord Martin Rees, former president of the Royal Society and the personal astronomer to Queen Elizabeth II since 1995, recently announced that he believes we’ll discover alien life within the next 40 years. Rees was speaking at a debate held in honor of Stephen Hawking’s new program, Grand Design.

Rees said he believed that astro-physicists could be able to view images of distant planets outside the solar system as soon as 2025. This could potentially lead to the discovery of some form of life on them.

Within 10 or 20 years we will be able to image other planets like the earth, orbiting other stars. That will be a really exciting subject to see if there is evidence for extra-terrestrial life or not.

Last year, Rees suggested that aliens were already on Earth in a form that we may not yet recognize. If aliens existed, he said, they were probably looking for us too.

In 2004, Channel 4 (UK) aired a documentary series called What We Still Don’t Know featuring Rees. In three episodes, Rees tries to answer questions like “Are we alone?”, “Why are we here”, and “Are we real?”. It’s quite philosophical, but well worth watching. Full three episodes below.

Episode 1: Are we alone?

Episode 2: Why are we here?

Episode 3: Are we real?

(Via The Telegraph)

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