ROOM
76
Space Science
Seth Shostak
SETI Institute,
Mountain View,
California, USA
A
liens have been a common fixture in
science fiction since the Second World
War when the development of modern
rocketry encouraged the idea that we
might eventually send humans to other worlds.
Films and television were quick to depict a
universe stuffed with clever and sophisticated,
although frequently unattractive, creatures. After
all, if we could manage space travel, why wouldn’t
highly advanced extraterrestrials, light-years away,
be doing the same?
Although cinematic sentiments are often
disappointingly hostile - aliens usually coming
to Earth with no more cogent intent than to
Poster from 1953 film
version of H G Wells’
novel, ‘War of the Worlds’
(1898). Wells’ invading
Martians were possessed
of intellects “vast, and
cool, and unsympathetic”.
The search for
life on other
worlds drives
much of our
exploration of
space
The popular belief that we share the universe with other forms of life might
once have been ascribed to the influence of fiction. Today, most of us are now
aware of the torrent of exoplanet discoveries that for the last two decades
have been the celebrity achievements of astronomical research. The
Universe is replete with territory that might both spawn and support life. If
our planet is the only one in the Universe with lifeforms able to understand
science and develop technology, then Earth truly is a miracle. But if there
are others then the flush of recent planetary discoveries and advances in
technology make a discovery in the near future more likely than ever before.
Science searches for
cosmic company
NASA/JPL-Caltech
