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Wonder Atlas

wonder

Is Anybody Out There?

6 min · Eve · Quiet listening

Eve

Is Anybody Out There?

Eve is reading this story.

Eve is ready

How to say it

Eve can say these names for you.

Tap a name. She will say it slowly.

A vast night hillside, two tiny figures looking up.
Illustration, Wonder Atlas

We know of thousands of planets around other stars. We know life began on Earth. We have not found a signal, a microbe, a forest, a city. We have found promising places. Promising is not proven. The honest sentence is not yes, and it is not no. It is: we are looking.

I wonder…

How sure are we?

  • We know

    Earth has life. Other stars have planets.

  • The evidence suggests

    The ingredients of life are common in the universe: carbon, water, energy.

  • We don't know yet

    Whether life exists anywhere else.

  • We're looking

    Telescopes, probes, and radio searches continue. No confirmed detection yet.

Try it tonight

  1. Go outside. Look at one star for thirty seconds.
  2. That star may have planets. You cannot see them. You can know they are possible.
  3. The question can sit with you. It does not have to be answered before bed.
Put it in My Sky

If you wondered