We have uncovered wonders undreamt by our ancestors who speculated on the nature of those wandering lights in the night sky. We have proved the origins of our planet and ourselves. By discovering what else is possible by coming face to face with alternative fates of worlds more or less like our own, we have begun to understand the earth.
Every one of these worlds is lovely and instructive.
But there are no relatives, no humans and apparently no life waiting for us on those of these worlds. No letters conveyed by recent emigres help us to undestand the new land, only data transmitted at the speed of light by unfeeling, precise robot emissaries. They tell us that these new worlds are not much like home. But we continue to search for inhabitants. We can’t help it. Life looks for life.
Pale blue dot. Carl Sagan