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Are We Alone In The Universe?

Europa from Voyager 2, 9 July 1979. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, seen from the unmanned Voyager 2 spacecraft. The size of our moon, Europa is thought to have a crust of ice 100 kilometres thick which overlies the silicate crust. The complex array of streaks indicate that the crust has been fractured and filled by materials from the interior. The lack of relief, any visible mountains or craters, on its bright limb is consistent with a thick ice crust. Artist NASA. (Photo by Heritage Space/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Heritage Images/Getty Images

Are We Alone In The Universe?

Europa from Voyager 2, 9 July 1979. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, seen from the unmanned Voyager 2 spacecraft. The size of our moon, Europa is thought to have a crust of ice 100 kilometres thick which overlies the silicate crust. The complex array of streaks indicate that the crust has been fractured and filled by materials from the interior. The lack of relief, any visible mountains or craters, on its bright limb is consistent with a thick ice crust. Artist NASA. (Photo by Heritage Space/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Heritage Images/Getty Images

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Are We Alone In The Universe?

Are we alone in the universe? It's a question that's been posed again and again. Carl Sagan posed it in the 1970s as a NASA mission scientist as the agency prepared to send its twin Viking landers to Mars. And nearly 50 years after the first of two landers touched down on Mars, we're no closer to an answer as to whether there's life — out there. Scientists haven't stopped looking. In fact, they've expanded their gaze to places like Saturn's largest moon, Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa. The search for life beyond planet earth continues to captivate. And NASA has upcoming missions to both moons. Could we be closer to answering that question Carl Sagan asked some 50 years ago? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

Europa from Voyager 2, 9 July 1979. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, seen from the unmanned Voyager 2 spacecraft. The size of our moon, Europa is thought to have a crust of ice 100 kilometres thick which overlies the silicate crust. The complex array of streaks indicate that the crust has been fractured and filled by materials from the interior. The lack of relief, any visible mountains or craters, on its bright limb is consistent with a thick ice crust. Artist NASA. (Photo by Heritage Space/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Heritage Images/Getty Images
 

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Are we alone in the universe?

It's a question that's been posed again and again. Carl Sagan posed it in the 1970s as a NASA mission scientist as the agency prepared to send its twin Viking landers to Mars.

And nearly 50 years after the first of two landers touched down on Mars, we're no closer to an answer as to whether there's life — out there.

Scientists haven't stopped looking. In fact, they've expanded their gaze to places like Saturn's largest moon, Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa.

The search for life beyond planet earth continues to captivate. And NASA has upcoming missions to both moons. Could we be closer to answering that question Carl Sagan asked some 50 years ago?

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

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