Find Life (original) (raw)

It’s likely we aren’t the only life in the universe. It won’t be easy to find—it could be very far away, totally different from the life we know, microscopic, or all of the above! But if there is other life out there, it’s worth looking for. The discovery would forever change the course of human history.

To search for life beyond Earth, a few different tactics need to be pursued simultaneously. We need to look for conditions where life as we know it could be possible, especially the presence of liquid water. We need to look for evidence of the processes of life as we know it, like the gases that living beings produce. We need to look for signals from technologically advanced civilizations that may be out there. And we need to test our theories about how life might travel between worlds.

The potential for discovery depends on how intensely the search is pursued. The search for life must be embraced as a scientific priority, which is what The Planetary Society works to achieve.