Neil deGrasse Tyson: Are We Alone in The Universe?

Neil deGrasse Tyson explains the possibility of life existing elsewhere in the Universe. He explains where the elements that make up life on Earth come from. And how that has profound implications about the prevalence of life in the Universe. Certainly the question "Are we alone in the Universe" has got to be among the oldest, most fascinating and awe inspiring questions in science that remains unanswered. But Neil deGrasse Tyson paints a very interesting cosmic picture about life itself and why most astrophysicists indeed accept the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial life is high. At the very end he also has what he calls a disturbing and thought provoking question for the viewers.

So far, the only life we know of is right here on our planet Earth. Yet, there are compelling arguments to suggest we are not alone. There are thousands of exoplanets that have been confirmed to exist in our galaxy and the likely number could be in the trillions.

Given how long life has had to evolve on Earth, it is possible that there are beings on other worlds that are even more advanced than we are. That would certainly have implications for our understanding of the origins of life.

A new study however, suggests that alien civilizations destroy themselves through progress, meaning our galaxy could be full of dead alien civilizations.

With a limited understanding of how life originated on Earth, and with so little understanding of what kind of life there is elsewhere in the universe, it is not too surprising we don’t know what we are going to find out there. But it seems very likely that other life will have developed in different ways to that which evolved on Earth.

So, are we alone in the universe? As Arthur C. Clarke has pointed out “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.