25 euros AUSTRIA 2022 - Extraterrestrial Life

25 EUROS AUSTRIA 2022 - Extraterrestrial Life

Is there anyone out there or is all life in the universe limited to our tiny "third rock from the sun"? And if we manage to establish contact with extraterrestrials, will it be love at first sight or a match made in hell? These and other timeless questions are explored in Extraterrestrial Life, the 2022 edition of our ever-popular Silver Niobium coin.

What if there really is someone out there? Making contact with extraterrestrials would change our entire concept of the universe. Is this really plausible or are those thoughts pure fantasy? Given that we only know a small part of the universe, comprising about 100 billion galaxies, each containing 100 billion stars, it is not surprising that we continue to ask these questions. The James Webb Space Telescope, the largest, most powerful and most complex space telescope ever built and launched into space, is designed to help us find the answers. The telescope's improved wavelength coverage and greater sensitivity compared to its predecessor, Hubble, will allow Webb to look much closer to the beginning of time, when the first stars and galaxies began to form, and alter fundamentally our understanding of the universe. . Launched into space on December 25, 2021, as of January 24, 2022, Webb has successfully deployed to its operational configuration and successfully entered orbit at its target destination.

The wait for Webb to detect signs of extraterrestrial life will undoubtedly be long. But in the meantime, one day visitors from another galaxy may stop by to say hello. If they do, will they look down on us or consider us their equals? Whatever the answer, they will have to be from a civilization even more technologically advanced than the James Webb Space Telescope itself.

Coin motif

The Webb is shown on the silver outer ring on the obverse of the coin along with the famous Drake equation, which aims to calculate the probability of extraterrestrial life. The violet niobium core is dominated by an alien holding the earth in his hands like a toy, symbolizing that we may well be defenseless against them if they existed.

Some of the factors that could favor life on other planets are represented in the niobium core on the reverse of the coin: carbon dioxide, methane, oxygen, vegetation and water. In the outer silver ring, Webb is shown capturing an exoplanet passing in front of a star.