The search for alien life is not new. In recent years, scientists have more means to conduct a greater and more in-depth search for places in the universe where alien life may exist. To date there is no conclusive evidence that other worlds host even the tiniest forms of life. However many scientists maintain that alien life is inevitable, and it is but a matter time before we find it.

So far, known planets number only in the hundreds. Yet the universe is so vast astronomers calculate that there are at least tens of billions of planets in our galaxy alone – and there are many more galaxies beyond our own. Since 1995 only about 100 planets have been identified outside our solar system.

Still that leaves the majority unidentified. Since the basic building blocks of life on Earth – complex organic compounds and amino acids – are abundant in the universe and found in meteorites, comets, and interstellar gas and dust, could we finally make contact with extraterrestrial life one day?