--- title: Halle Berry Believes Aliens Exist, And She's Probably Right description: Don't dismiss the sci-fi star's admission that she believes in extraterrestrial life — there's a very strong case to make that it exists canonical: https://time.com/2966016/halle-berry-aliens/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-08T15:31:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:33.587Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Halle Berry is Right: Aliens (Probably) Exist og:description: Don't dismiss the sci-fi star's admission that she believes in extraterrestrial life — there's a very strong case to make that it exists og:url: https://time.com/2966016/halle-berry-aliens/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb19d9073d50bb515/69869ad3cd6848b10f095908/halleberry.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Berry talks science—and gets it righter than most og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Halle Berry is Right: Aliens (Probably) Exist twitter:description: Don't dismiss the sci-fi star's admission that she believes in extraterrestrial life — there's a very strong case to make that it exists twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb19d9073d50bb515/69869ad3cd6848b10f095908/halleberry.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Halle Berry Is Right: Aliens Are (Probably) Real > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Life in the Universe: Easy or Hard? [Watch (HLS stream): Life in the Universe: Easy or Hard?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/MthT6LZ2.m3u8) (3:37)  _Published 2012-05-13. Are we alone in the Universe? According to TIME senior science editor, Jeffrey Kluger, recent discoveries suggest we're not_  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Jul 8, 2014 3:31 PM UTC  Berry talks science—and gets it righter than most Berry talks science—and gets it righter than most Trae Patton/NBC; NBC via Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Jul 8, 2014 3:31 PM UTC **Correction appended, July 8** It’s not often Halle Berry’s name comes up in scientific circles, but today, the actress—who’s starring in CBS sci-fi thriller _Extant_—is all the buzz, after telling David Letterman that she [believes aliens exist](http://time.com/2965625/halle-berry-aliens-extant/). Dr. Berry joins Bill Clinton, who made a similar admission to Jimmy Kimmel back in April, and [as I said at the time](http://time.com/48208/clinton-aliens-kimmel-space/), there’s solid science backing the we-are-not-alone community. Some of the case for ET is based on simple numbers: the 300 billion stars in our galaxy, the 100 billion galaxies in the larger universe, and the recent discovery of thousands of planets or candidate planets in the Milky Way, thanks to the [Kepler Space Telescope](http://www.nasa.gov/mission%5Fpages/kepler/main/#.U7v9u41dVMo). Those thousands suggest there could be billions or trillions more. Exobiologists disagree on the likelihood of life emerging on any of those worlds, but if you belong to the life-is-easy school (which I do) there’s reason for optimism, thanks to a simple equation: water plus hydrocarbons plus energy plus time _may_ equal life. That’s how we got here—and who said we’re so special that the formula can work only once? But Berry does get one thing very wrong when she says, “…it might take us 20 years to get to those other life forms, but I think they are out there.” Sorry Halle, but 20 ain’t happening. Unless we find a microorganism in water deposits on Mars (a legitimate possibility) or something living in the warm, salty oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa, or on one of the handful of other moons in the solar system thought to harbor water, making contact with any species—particularly an intelligent species—across billions of light years of space is the very longest of cosmic long shots. We may not be alone, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be hosting extraterrestrial dinner parties any time soon. _Correction: The original version of this story misstated who Halle Berry told she believes in aliens._ ## Transcript In the universe life is either very easy or very hard. Hi, I'm Jeffrey Kluger and this is Time Science. The camp that says life is easy. Suggests that whatever happened on Earth, is easily replicate- able elsewhere in space, if only because there are so many other stars and now that the Kepler space telescope is looking for planets, we know that there are many, many other planets out there as well. If it could happen here, there is no reason it couldn't there. Paul Davies, the cosmologist at Arizona State University and the author of the book, The Erie Silence, believes that life is statistically just unlikely outside of Earth. Life is too complex, Earth like planets are too rare, and no matter how many stars there are in the Universe, when you crunch the numbers, we're probably alone. I think life is easy. I think with so many worlds out there, and the basic chemistry so readily available, there will be life on other worlds. It doesn't have to be intelligent life, it may not rise above the level of microbes, but from microbes we emerge. So, at some point on some other planets, there can be intelligent life as well. Now, this is more than just probability at work. The complex hydrocarbons and the mix of organic chemicals that make us what we are, are in fact, very common in the universe. The reason life began in the oceans on Earth is because water is essential to life as we know it, and also because water, at least on a planet in the Goldilocks zone, not too hot, not too, too cold, can be very warm and amniotic. That's a very nurturing environment for life to evolve. We now know that the universe is fairly awash in water. We see water in interstellar space. We see it in interstellar clouds. It's perhaps Jupiter's big moons that have the most promise here. We see water on the surface and beneath the surface of moons such as Europa, and Gananee and Calisto, all of which are thought to be able to keep water in a liquid state because of the gravitational pulsing that warms their interior. It's a little bit like. When you bend a wire hanger back and forth and it becomes too hot to touch. Of course, it's also possible that there are extraterrestrials and we're it. Plenty of people believe in the theory of panspermia, the idea that incoming asteroids from deep space carry the organic compounds that first seeded the earth. And there are some people who even suggest that Earthlings are in fact, Martians who originated as single celled organisms on Mars, rode to Earth aboard rocks, blasted off of Mars, and then populated our planet. There's more and more evidence that Mars was once a warm, wet, watery place, and some life that evolved then may still be living beneath the surface. If we go there, and we find it, maybe we're just coming home. 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