The search for life in the Universe

Each recent report of liquid water existing elsewhere in the solar system has reverberated through the international press and excited the imagination of humankind. Why? Because in the last few decades we have come to realize that where there is liquid water on Earth, virtually no matter what the physical conditions, there is life.

What we previously thought of as insurmountable physical and chemical barriers to life, we now see as yet another niche harboring “extremophiles”.

This realization, coupled with new data on the prevalence of potential abodes for life in our solar system and beyond, the survival of microbes in the space environment, modeling of the potential for transfer of life between celestial bodies, and advances in synthetic biology suggests that life could be more common than previously thought.

With these data mounting, are we truly “alone”?