Astrobiology, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is a multidisciplinary field dealing with the nature and existence of and search for extraterrestrial life. It encompasses many fields of biology, astronomy and geology. If it’s already defined in a recognized dictionary, to say the least, why do people still wonder if it’s something of science fiction or it doesn’t exist. Well here’s my honest and logical opinion, people are scared what astrobiology can, and will, answer; like author Arthur C. Clarke said “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” Astrobiology seeks the answer to one of the oldest known questions in our society. “Are we alone in the Universe?” People tend to stay away from this specific question, afraid it will damage their convictions, opinion or ideas. It’s a life changing question and one that many have tried to answer. Carl Sagan, one of the most recognized astrobiologists of the 20th century, strived to find sentience life in the cosmos and educate mankind with his many scientific papers and television show on the aspects of Life as a whole. He dedicated his whole life to the understanding of many scientific fields, one of them happened to be astrobiology and educate human kind as to what it was and what it could achieve. When I tell my fellow students that I’m interested in astrobiology they tend to say “Does that even exist?”, “it sounds like something out of Star Wars…”, or my favorite, “get some real life goals man, study something real…” And yet after all those comments, I tell them to search up information, to educate themselves on the matter at hand and to try and be understanding of the sciences that fulfill our whole spectrum and the way we see the universe. Astrobiology fulfills all my desires in a field of study and still people ridicule it as a science, as a whole entity, just by being ignorant. Astrobiology has impulsed investigations, some of them finding bacterial crystal cocoons in meteorites, to discovering to describing how Titan’s chemical atmosphere could spark life. Carl Sagan hoped all humans would advocate in the use of the scientific method and scientific skeptical inquiry, which are the base of all science as we know it. Many of those fellow students I told you about tend to pass these scientific techniques and illogically discriminate against this whole science and it’s wrong. Because sometime in their life the “be scared of that which you don’t know or understand” dogma was inserted into their minds. Trying to explain why this is a “hard” science to a close minded person is a challenge, but one that I hope to one day be able to do in a classroom or an auditorium filled with people who wish to learn. Astrobiology is and forever will be a science, one that many need to understand (at least the basics) and be taught as a degree in universities around the world. My education will lead me to this field, maybe I won’t get a “real” goal but at least I’ll be happy studying and admiring life in the Universe.
“The cosmos is all that it is, or ever was or ever will be.”
-Carl Sagan, Astrophysicist, astrobiologist, and cosmologist
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