London: Aliens on far-away planets can be found even after they die out.
Jack O`Malley-James of the University of St Andrews, UK, and colleagues modelled the sun`s transformation into a red giant.
As Earth heats up in 1 billion years` time, microbes are going to be left as the only survivors.
In the team`s projections, many corpses` produces a spike in methanethiol, which is around for only 350 years but transforms into ethane. So a planet that`s high in ethane may be a sign of a post-apocalyptic world, once home to complex life, New Scientist reported.
O`Malley-James said that most likely, life is going to ebb over 10 to 100 million years, and leave no such spike.
When the researchers simulated the gases produced by the gradual ebbing of complex life, they discovered that the surviving microbes are going to sub-surface and produce methane that potentially would be detected by telescopes.
