Published By: Sougata Dutta

Is anybody out there? - Our search for life out there

Amidst the grandiose of the Universe, here we are on a small blue speck of blue dust – beaming with life!

The universe is vast and unending. To think of such a notion while absurd might seem but is quite justified. Ask – where we are? This here is us on this special planet. And out there, there are millions and millions of others that have their way of existence.

Life is special to this planet. Intelligent life to be more exact. But then again, are we all that this unfathomably large universe has to offer?

Some history: A brief recap of why we are, where we are

After the big bang when the dust began to set in, stars were born, and when those stars died in a fantastic glow of nova – supernova to be exact – nebulae were made. And from one such nebule – from the dusty remains of the stars – was born our sun.

We are Stardust: How we came to be

“We are all stardust” – You must’ve heard this phrase somewhere out there. But what does it mean to say? We, humans, are a species on this planet made out of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen which were once a part of a star that exploded into the void of space.

Then they clumped together to form a ball and we came into being from the minerals and elements made from that clump of stardust.

The oldest question: Is anybody out there?

Since the very first days of our evolution as a species, we have looked at the night sky and wondered about this question over and over again. And after thousands and thousands of years, we continue to do so.

The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence better known as SETI continues to do so with the utmost scientific vigor. They use telescopes that can even capture all the light we cannot see. And even the ones we do with a resolution better than no one on the planet.

We search: Our eternal quest for life out there

We have not stopped looking. Even to this day our telescopes continuously try to gather data to learn all about what’s out there. Exoplanets, star systems, nebulae, and signals. We are listening, looking, and searching with all we can.

We have sent the Voyagers on a mission that won’t allow them to turn back and they keep heading into the darkness with greetings from humanity and sounds of the earth. And the search keeps on.