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Pre-modern writers typically assumed that extraterrestrial "worlds" would be inhabited by living beings.
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Multiple early Christian writers discussed the idea of a "plurality of worlds" as proposed by earlier thinkers such as Democritus Augustine references Epicurus's idea of innumerable worlds "throughout the boundless immensity of space" in The City of God. Speculation about the possibility of inhabited "worlds" outside the planet Earth dates back to antiquity. The science of extraterrestrial life in all its forms is known as astrobiology, the multidisciplinary field that investigates the deterministic conditions and contingent events with which life arises, distributes, and evolves in the universe. The Drake equation speculates about the existence of sapient life elsewhere in the universe. Such life might range from simple forms comparable to prokaryotes, to intelligent beings, possibly bringing forth civilizations that might be far more advanced than humankind. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Robotic exploration of the Solar System (image: Curiosity rover on Mars)Įxtraterrestrial life, sometimes colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth.Listening for extraterrestrial signals indicating intelligence (image: Allen array).The search for extrasolar planets (image: Kepler telescope).Some major international efforts to search for extraterrestrial life.