“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun.” Around 1970 the sci-fi genius Douglas Adams was starting his literary exploration through the infinite possibilities of the universe. Adams portrayed the wonder, the subtlety and, especially the immensity of the universe in a comic and chaotic way. His books awake, furthermore, something like the feeling of watching the sky and the impression of being very small, strange to all the events out there.
Douglas Adams’ source of inspiration was born, regardless, in a scientific context fervent with new discoveries and possibilities. In this same scenario, an old question of the scientific community and even of the entire humanity came back to light: After all, is life an Earth’s exclusive disk?
Well, there are controversies.
First of all: a central reasoning to understand this situation is the own condition of life’s existence here on Earth. This delicate organizational balance of a living being demanded several millions of events before becoming what it is today. Life as we know it needs, fundamentally, carbon, liquid water, a few interesting nutrients, a favorable atmosphere, ideal temperature, etc.
Under the right conditions, these components can theoretically, organize into a primitive form of live that can gradually origin other living beings. In the last few years, therefore, several exoplanets (planets that are outside our solar system) that can shelter those conditions have been discovered. Taking into account the size of the observable universe, furthermore, the change of life popping up somewhere is frighteningly big. Does it mean, for sure, that aliens are out there observing us? Not necessarily.
Apparently, life takes millions and millions of years to develop and some more billions of years to become something intelligent. Moreover, what will happen if we are the first intelligent civilization in the universe? What will happen if we are not? Until now, there is no concrete evidence of alien life, neither complex nor simple.
Anyways, the scientific community (and the pop culture too) has mobilized to understand more deeply the possibilities of astrobiology, after all, maybe one day our species will be out there taking intergalactic trips, so, just in case, we’d better get to know a little bit more about our possible neighbors in the universe.
Below I leave the recommendation of this great video from “In a Nutshell”.
So long, and thanks for all the fish, I mean, the attention.
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