In mid-September, NASA and the Library of Congress will hold a free, two-day symposium on Astrobiology and Society in Washington D.C. to consider how we should prepare for the discovery of extraterrestrial life—not just microbial life, but perhaps complex and intelligent life as well. The fact that this topic is being discussed at the Library of Congress suggests that it’s no longer considered an unlikely pipe dream, but rather something that should be taken seriously by government institutions.
Discoveries in the last few decades led to this change of view. Scientists have found extremophilic life in environmental niches previously considered impossible for life to thrive in. The number of known exoplanets now stands at more than 1,000 and counting. Some of these are Earth-size, some are potentially habitable, and some are both. Data from spacecraft and planetary rovers indicate habitable conditions not only on Mars, but on a number of moons in the outer solar system.
With these developments in mind, Steven J. Dick, who holds the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, decided to assemble selected scientists, philosophers, historians, and theologians from around the world to explore how society can prepare for the discovery of extraterrestrial life and what this means to our understanding of life and our place in the universe.