I was so glad to finally visit Fuertes Observatory last Friday. The talk by the astrobiologist was fascinating, and the many astronomical tools were beautiful and intricate. I’ve always found the search for life exciting, terrifying,and humbling. Our planet is so small and insignificant in comparison to the rest of the universe, yet we have not yet found another planet with confirmed life. We have discovered many planets that can be called “habitable,” but the criteria for this designation is surprisingly low.

In Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, he evaluates Earth as if it were an exoplanet that we were investigating to see if it had life. According to Tyson, it would be extremely difficult to detect earth from its brightness alone, as its brightness is less than one-billionth of that of the Sun. The other popular method of detecting exoplanets, looking for a “jiggle” in the motion of the star, would also be ineffective, as earth is so small that it barely alters the Sun’s motion. Aliens would likely have to use radio or micro waves in order to detect us, and even if they succeeded in noticing Earth’s transmissions, they would also have to translate them and understand that they are more than just random noise.

Despite the size of the universe and the countless planets it contains, finding new life seems nearly impossible.