The outgoing Swiss-American NASA research director Thomas Zurbuchen (54) expects major changes in the understanding of the universe over the next 20 to 30 years. There is also a “considerable chance of finding life beyond Earth” during this period.
Such a find would change the whole discussion of life, Zurbuchen said on Tuesday on the SRF program “10 vor 10”. Extraterrestrial life is possible on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Under a layer of ice, NASA researchers suspect that there is an ocean there. “If there are traces of life on Europa, it changes the whole discussion about life in the universe.”
Zurbuchen was born in 1968 in Heiligenschwendi near Thun BE, studied physics and mathematics at the University of Bern, later went to the University of Michigan in the US and in 2016 to NASA, where he was responsible for more than 100 science missions. Zurbuchen will retire at the end of this year after more than six years as head of the NASA research team. (SDA/kes)