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ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE?

Are We Alone in the Universe?

English IV
Universidad de Chile

October, 2015

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Human beings, in every different culture and civilization on this planet, have always been
intrigued for the same big question,Is there anyone like us out there? In ancient times, the
answers to this question were gods and spiritual entities. They were similar to us: they had
language, fears, rage and love. Today, after four hundred years of science and technology, that
question remains, but gods and spiritual entities are not already valid answers. Perhaps without
knowing it, Giordano Bruno, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Galileo Galilei planted the seed of an
idea in our minds: that there are other planets like Earth with other organisms like us in the
universe. Now, we must harvest the evidence.
Until the sixteenth century, our understanding of the universe was based on the Ptolemy's
cosmological model. The Earth stood at the center, surrounded by eight spheres that carried the
moon, the sun, the stars, and the five planets known at the time, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,
and Saturn (Hawking, 1988, p. 2). One of the first steps to support a new model was given when
Galileo looked at Jupiter and realize it was accompanied by small satellites that orbited around it.
After Kepler and Newton, and centuries of development, we know this and much more. Our
current picture of the universe possesses several other stars with their own planetary systems in
the Milky Way, and one hundred billions of galaxies different from our own. It seems impossible
to me to deny the implications. Nevertheless, many people believe (for religious reasons,
specifically) that we and the Earth are special. To them, life is a kind of miracle. My main goal in
this paper is to present some reasons why I think they are wrong.
To understand unmistakably my thesis, it is necessary to specify what we know about life
on Earth. In short, we know that 4.000 millions years ago the planet got cold. Because comets
collided with Earth, oceans were formed. Electric rays from storms which hit oceans created an
organic soup. Eventually, this organic soup fermented and the first living thing appeared: the

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first cell. This simple organism had two fundamental characteristics: it was reproduced, and
made mistakes in the process. For a long time, these organisms evolved in many other different
forms of life until the present era (Minniti 2010, p. 56). But, how specifically was life created?
We do not know yet. We only have this general explanation about necessary conditions for life.
One important fraction of our search of life in other planets consists in to determinate if those
conditions exist in them. Alternatively, there is another theoretical possibility that propose life
originated at another place of the universe. So, at some moment in the past, the Earth went
through a interstellar dust cloud which had organic molecules, or they arrived in Earth on a
comet or on a rock from another planet. Again, this theory does not say us how was life created,
it only say us life is basically alien life (Minniti 2010, p. 59). Astrobiology has as main goal
resolve this hard enigma.
Although we do not have an answer for the above question, we can speculate on the
grounds of those two above theories. Let us suppose first that life was originally created on
Earth. What can we derive from this assumption? Currently, we know the solar system was
formed from a primordial nebula. In the first place, the sun was formed. In the remaining fraction
of this nebula, the protoplanets appeared. These young celestial bodies, after consecutive
collisions, along with the sun became our solar system. In other words, every body in solar
system was made by the same fundamental elements, therefore it is very probable that necessary
conditions for life were formed in other places moreover Earth. There is not a priori reason to
suppose that our planet is a sort of miraculous configuration of material conditions for life. For
instance, Europa and Ganimedes the Jupiter's moons, possesses great amounts of water and
geological activity (Minniti 2010, p. 92). Furthermore, many astronomers are very interested in
to know more about Titan, the Saturn's moon. They believe this icy satellite has similar

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conditions to Earth at its beginning (4.500 years ago). Additionally, there is evidence that
suggests life appeared on Earth 3.500 years ago or even 3.800 years ago (2010, p. 65). It means
that life appeared quite fast on our planet. So, if we judge based on all these data, the existence of
life on other places like Europa or Titan is not only possible but also quite probable.

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References
Hawking, S. W. (1988). A Brief History of Time. London: Bantam Press.
Minniti, D. (2010). Mundos Lejanos: sistemas planetarios y vida en el universo. Santiago:
Ediciones B.