Astronaut says ‘there are definitely aliens out there’ but we face one major problem on Earth

Australia’s first female astronaut has weighed in on one of the universe’s biggest questions about aliens: ‘are we alone?’

To put her answer simply – no, she doesn’t think we are.

Katherine Bennell-Pegg believes alien life likely exists due to the universe’s vastness.

There has also been an abundance of life-supporting elements discovered that have seemed to amp up the excitement that we are on the verge of the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

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The astronaut weighs in on aliens

Bennell-Pegg added her opinion to the universal debate during a sit-down chat at Sydney’s South by Southwest conference.

The 39-year-old astronaut is currently the Director of Space Technology with the Australian Space Agency (ASA).

The question came from an intrigued audience member.

The sheer scale of the universe makes it improbable that Earth is the only planet with life.

So, what’s her take?

“There are definitely aliens out there,” she said.

The space explorer added: “I don’t think they walk among us, even if it feels like that sometimes.”

That goes against a recent theory by Harvard researchers that aliens are, in fact, already here.

Nobody seems to be taking Elon Musk’s claims seriously.

The issue holding us back

However, the sheer vastness of space and time means that being in the right place at the right time in order to find aliens is the issue at play here.

“Given the scale of the universe, we think there are somewhere between 100 to 200 sextillion stars in the universe.

“That is similar to the number of grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth,” she explained.

“All the ingredients for life, the molecules and elements we need, are the most abundant in the universe.”

We’ve only just begun our search, too: “We’ve just started looking at exoplanets with space telescopes, and just in the last six years we’ve found almost 6,000 exoplanets, that are planets around other stars.

“Many of them are in what could be a habitable zone. I just think, odds are, life is out there. The interesting thing is though, if it is, will we ever be able to communicate with them? Who knows.”

A Cambridge scientist stated earlier this year that one faraway planet has a ’50/50′ chance of alien life.

Bennell-Pegg believes that instead of continuing to search, we should focus on Earth’s environmental and social issues as a priority.