Music of the Galaxy

Music of the Galaxy

In the great dark between the stars there are clouds of gas and dust and organic matter. Dozens of different kinds of organic molecules have been found there by radio telescopes. The abundance of these molecules suggests that the stuff of life is everywhere. Perhaps the origin and evolution of life is, given enough time, a cosmic inevitability. On some of the billions of planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, life may never arise. On others, it may arise and die out or never evolve beyond its simplest forms. And on some small fraction of worlds there may develop intelligences and civilisations more advanced than our own.

Is our planet the one lonely theme in the music of life? Image © Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

All life on Earth is closely related. We have a common organic chemistry and a common evolutionary heritage. As a result, our biologists are profoundly limited, as they study only a single kind of biology, one lonely theme in the music of life.

Is this faint and reedy tune the only voice for thousands of light-years? Or is there a kind of cosmic fugue, with themes and counterpoints, dissonances and harmonies, a billion different voices playing the life music of the Galaxy?