Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer, once said, “The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space.”
The thought of the universe being so vast and us being alone in it sends chills to every human being once the idea is brought to the table. From the day we gazed upon the sky, to the current day wherein we found phosphine, a byproduct of microbes here on Earth, in Venus, we have been curious about extraterrestrial creatures that might be lurking in the vastness of space. Setting the egocentrism of the sapiens aside, the majority of astronomers, especially astrobiologists, are claiming that there is life outside of this rocky planet of ours.
For most experts in the field of astrobiology, we are not alone in the universe. We have never been and we will never be. Once the empire of the sapiens rose to prominence, our principles always started with humans and ended with human — egocentrism to say the least. But as we travel to the depths of the cosmos, we learned that even the earth is but a grain of sand in this cosmic beach. As a result, speculations of life outside the earth became a prevalent issue in the modern-day. But for us to continue arguing about this issue, we must first define the commonly misused word “alien”.
Alien life is a certain species whose presence is not experienced throughout the vicinity of a certain place, in our case, the Earth. Running this definition once more, the realization hits that when the word “alien” is brought to the dance, we are not limited to grayish creatures with bloated heads. We are stating that any organism whose history is outside the Earth can be considered as an alien life form.
Imagine all the stars in the cosmos. We know that there are more stars in the cosmos than there are sands in all the beaches here on Earth. In fact, there are more stars in the cosmos than every single letter humanity uttered since it started uttering. It is such a wonderful fact to know that and believe it or not, some of those stars have planetary systems that can host life forms, either complex, simple, or a combination of both. The probability is off the roof.
Signatures of life are evident in various astronomical analyses. From radio waves from afar saying “WOW!” to the presence of water and different biochemical elements in various spots of the cosmos. Even just by staying here in the Solar System, you’ll find such biological signatures. The equation developed by Frank Drake in estimating the number of planets, using variables such as the rate of star formation, the fraction of Earth-like planets, and the fraction of those on which life develops, is clearly stating that an estimated 10,000 planets in the known universe are hosting alien life.
Most people not believing in the presence of another consciousness in the universe are forgetting that we are but a young presence in this cosmic wonderland. We have a lot to discover yet, and that leaves us still questioning about the existence of alien life forms. To put this into perspective, imagine the volume of the universe and put it into the scale of all water here on Earth in one place. It will be dawned to us that we have only filtered and studied a 12-ounce glass of the entirety of the body of water. So you cannot say that when you scoop one 12-ounce glass of the universe and find no fish in it, then there is no fish in the water. We still have limited access to advanced astronomical technology, so saying that we are alone is a pretty early conundrum.
Maybe there is life outside the Earth, or maybe not. It is still a freely loosed battleground of ideas and principles. If we eliminate the possibility of another life forms beyond our reaches, we are robbing the objectivity of the universe — we are proclaiming that we're special, which when compared to the universe in composition, we are not. And to see the dawn of a new generation wherein we will eventually watch the egocentrism wall of ours fall and let the idea of another life form outside the earth is just a mystery waiting to be unraveled.
In conclusion, humans are not alone in the universe and will never be. We will eventually discover this soon. And once humanity leaped into making this discovery, life, as we know it, will be redefined, not if, but when we encounter everybody.
References:
[1] Pickrell, J. (2006, September 4). Top 10: Controversial pieces of evidence for alien life. Retrieved from https://www.newscientist.com/
[2] Six frontiers for alien life. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/
[3] StarTalk. (2020, April 1). Searching for Aliens, with Neil deGrasse Tyson [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/sAeTqnRbItg
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