Life in Space

The universe is vast, so vast we can't really imagine it. There are billions of suns out there, surrounded by billions of planets. There may even be other universes, with even more stars and planets. If human beings are the only life, the only spark of intelligence and self-awareness that has arisen, then that invites loneliness that borders on madness. Just look up at the sky some clear starry night and think about it!

Ever since human science has enabled us to, we have searched for signs of life in our solar system and beyond. We scan the sky with increasingly sophisticated equipment, looking for signals that might form a pattern that might indicate someone is sending a message.

We send out messages in various different formats.

Using signs and symbols, sounds and even radio waves, we send messages that say, more less, "Here we are! Drop by and see us. We can think! And we're friendly".

And we have sent out space...probes, like messages in bottles. They travel across oceans of space, carrying small examples of human civilisation. The hope is that something, somewhere, will find one and understand.

Why do scientists do this? Do they really believe they will find something? Actually most scientific theory suggests that the universe should be full of life. The atoms on Earth are constructed in the same way as atoms in a galaxy on the other side of the universe. They obey the same physical laws. Most astronomers believe that our sun is a very average kind of star, and that stars similar to it occur billions of times in the universe. The formation of planets in our solar system is also an event which has probably been repeated countless times. Even the beginning of life, the creation of molecules that can reproduce themselves, is only a particular combination of chemical elements and energy that almost certainly occurs elsewhere. And once life begins, evolution if it takes a different pathway than evolution on Earth did. So theory suggests that life has evolved again and again throughout the history of the universe. But there is no proof.