Cosmic loneliness: what our desire to hack the universe can say about us

“Give nature the chance to surprise you,” says Ethan Siegel, astrophysicist and author of National Geographic's newest tribute to the James Webb Space Telescope – which has transformed how we understand the universe.

I gaze up at the sky through the window of my car. It’s late in the evening, but the intense glow of the city lights means that the stars are barely visible. Resting on my lap is the newly published National Geographic book Infinite Cosmos – a tribute to two decades of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), from its inception to its discoveries, which have revolutionized our understanding of the universe.

In the opening pages, Brian Greene, the renowned physicist who brought string theory into the public consciousness, writes that the Webb Telescope has created a promise to “not just peer into the distant reaches of space but also, as with all ambitious challenges, to hold up a mirror to our very nature, revealing the depth and scale of our commitment to know ourselves and reality.”

Deep down, what drives humans to unravel the universe’s mysteries? Maybe it's the hope of finding something, or someone, like ourselves – a connection in the vast unknown.

Can the telescope, which we sent out there as a giant cosmic eye, expanding our ability to see what’s happening in distant planets and galaxies, shed light on the origins of our universe while also answering the profound question of why we are here?

I hopped on the call with Ethan Siegel, an astrophysicist, celebrated science writer, and the author of the newly released book, to learn more about the universe and our role in exploring it.

With a PhD in astrophysics, he now describes himself as a translator on a quest to “translate from science into English,” believing that presenting science is, indeed, a form of art.

High-definition universe that transformed science

Ethan’s eyes burn with a mad passion for the cosmos. Since he was a child, the New York-born author was captivated by the mysteries of the universe. “I've always been very curious about what was out there beyond what we could see, what we could touch. There's more to reality than this, right?” he says, smiling.

This innate curiosity likely defines us as a species and has driven us to build the most powerful cosmic telescope yet. This telescope allows us to peer into the origins of everything, from the birth of stars to the formation of galaxies.

A huge international team of scientists began constructing the James Webb Telescope in 2004. Nearly two decades later, the result of their relentless efforts journeyed on a rocket 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth.

The telescope, constructed from 18 hexagonal-shaped mirrors, was designed to detect wavelengths of light in the infrared, which are not visible to the human eye and the ‘eyes’ of previous telescopes.

Hiding under an enormous sun shield, which keeps it away from the heat and frigid temperatures of nearly -400F, JWST is capturing immense amounts of light and providing high-resolution images of celestial objects that were not possible by its predecessors, such as the Hubble Space Telescope.

According to Ethan, with JWST – a hundred times more precise than the Hubble telescope – we're “learning to ask new questions, questions that we wouldn't have known.” In other words, it transformed science itself.

Our solar system might not be normal

Joe Biden addressed US citizens in 2022, revealing JWST’s first image. The black image contained numerous bright dots – it was a galaxy cluster of 1000 individual galaxies. That was impressive, but it was just the initial step for an array of further discoveries.

The JWST has provided detailed images of ancient galaxies that formed shortly after the Big Bang, which shed light on the formation process of stellar systems.

The telescope's penetrating eye has detected the most distant active supermassive black hole ever seen. It also helped to decode the chemical compositions of the exoplanet atmosphere in search of Earth-like exoplanets, which draws scientists nearer to answering the question of whether we are truly alone in the universe.

Apart from looking out to the faraway world, the JWST also helps us explore the wonders of our cosmic neighborhood – our galaxy and solar system. Astronomers are working on finding out whether our planet and solar system are run-of-the-mill or special.

“You build this thing because you want to give nature the chance to surprise you,” says Ethan.

“We thought solar systems, or stellar systems in general, would be like ours. With the JWST, we've learned not only is that not how it is everywhere, but we might not even be normal. We might not even be typical. And to me, that's revolutionary.”

He explains that our solar system has inner rocky planets and two asteroid belts. Before the James Webb Space Telescope, this structure was used as a template for other stellar systems. The discoveries made with a telescope reveal that, for example, the stellar system of one of the brightest stars in the night sky, Fomalhaut, has three asteroid belts.

“We didn't even know this was something we should be looking for. This is why you build something with what I call discovery potential to find new things,” explains Ethan.

Are we truly alone in the universe?

“If there aren't aliens actually on Earth and there aren't cover-ups and conspiracies hiding them from everyone, I think it's very likely that there is life out there in the universe,” smiles Ethan when I ask him if we have hopes of finding extraterrestrial life any time soon.

The JWST has identified several promising candidate exoplanets that might harbor life, including the "eyeball" icy planet LHS 1140 b, just 48 light-years away from us. As a species, we seem to collectively celebrate any discovery that hints at the presence of water, ever hopeful that it may signal the possibility of life beyond our own world.

Where is this human desperation to find something similar to us coming from? Does the OTHER define who we are as a species? Or does it bring meaning to our existence?

“We have this feeling of loneliness. We have this feeling of being alone. Even if you have a planet with billions of humans on it, we still feel alone,” answers Ethan.

“We think maybe there's someone out there who feels that same thing I do. And maybe if we met each other, we would feel less alone.”

The search for other intelligent life forms in the vast universe has so far yielded no tangible results. Scientists have been monitoring electromagnetic signals in search of signs of intelligent life.

Ethan explains that another way is by analyzing the composition of exoplanets' atmospheres. Every once in a while, an exoplanet will transit across its parent star, allowing the starlight to pass through the planet's atmosphere.

By measuring which portions of that light are absorbed, astronomers can gain insight into the chemical compounds present in the atmosphere – an essential step in uncovering potential signs of life.

“The JWST can look for some of life’s signatures, but it hasn't seen anything that we've said, ‘that's aliens’ so far. It's not the best for that.” says Ethan.

“The JWST is great in a lot of ways, but it's not the best alien-finding telescope we could have built. It's not like we built it, and now science is done. We're done with astronomy. We don't need another telescope. No.”

The best telescope to answer the question of whether we are alone is yet to come. NASA is working on a new telescope called the Habitable Worlds Observatory. This telescope will be optimized to image Earth-like planets orbiting at Earth-like distances from sun-like stars. Its primary mission is to identify and directly capture images of at least 25 potentially habitable worlds.

“We are striving for connection even with something you don't know if it exists or not. If there is someone out there, I want to know who it is, and I want to know what makes them who they are. I don't know them, but I want to like them,”

says Ethan.

I smile and ask what if they try to kill us all. “You know, I've met humans. I don't imagine there were any aliens more hostile than we are,” laughs Ethan.

We can’t hack the universe – yet

With all the great discoveries that have revealed so many new things to us, the question remains – can humanity ever fully unlock the universe's secrets, or is there some knowledge that might not be reachable to us like — ever?

Much like Sisyphus, eternally pushing his stone up the hill yet never reaching the summit, our exploration of the universe is a journey down an endless slope of new questions, always just beyond the grasp of an ultimate answer.

Science can never come to an end because that would mean that we’ve already figured everything out and know how everything works.

“I can't imagine what that would look like, but I want to strive for that. I know I can't achieve my ultimate goal, but I want to spend my life energy getting as close as possible,” Ethan tells me.

According to him, we are not the species that usually gives up – we always use our best minds and build the best tools to figure out the most complex problems.

“Although JWST has now taken us deeper into the universe than ever before – to greater distances, earlier times, and fainter objects, all at a superior resolution, it’s still fundamentally limited in its scope and capabilities,”

reads the words in the book Infinite Cosmos.

The very first stars, made of material left over from the Big Bang, still remain out of reach of JWST, at least for now. By the decade's end, 99% of the sky will still remain unobserved by JWST. It would take 16 million independent JWST observations to cover the entire known universe.

“With JWST in action, the horizons of the unknown are receding. With each new answer provided by its data, new questions arise. The wonder inherent in scientific endeavors, and our joy at finding things out, will always be part of the journey,” concludes the book, leaving more questions than answers. But that’s part of the process of the eternal search.