Egocentric Earth: Life In the Universe

The existence of life elsewhere in outer space has remained a captivating and widely debated subject throughout human history. One need only look at the diversity of life on our own planet to discover the array of creatures with various means of adapting to severe environments, an ability which gives confidence to those optimistic of finding life “out there”. Imagine for a moment you had not been exposed to the different kinds of animals found all over our planet. The vast array of our planet’s species, each with their own distinctive physiology, would seem to more alien than even Hollywood’s most extreme creations. This sentiment is supported by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who rationalizes, “On this single planet called Earth, there co-exist (among countless other life forms), algae, beetles, sponges, jellyfish, snakes, condors, and giant sequoias. Imagine these seven living organisms lined up next to each other in order of size. If you didn't know better, you would be hard-pressed to believe that they all came from the same Universe, much less the same planet.” The ability for organisms to adapt to extremely harsh environments remains one of the most convincing pieces of evidence in the argument for the proliferation of life through the Universe. The detection of extraterrestrial life will help us understand whether our existence came about as a result of pure chance and that we solitary creatures will remain the singular illustration of a phenomenal event, or that we simply happen to represent a particular example of the development and diversity of life which proliferates through our boundless Universe.