The true story behind Carl Sagan’s cult classic, Contact | Jill Tarter for Big Think

When we first started exploring space, we only knew about the eight planets in our Solar System. Today, we know that in the Milky Way galaxy, there are more planets than there are stars. Additionally, there are organisms on Earth called "extremophiles" that thrive in extreme or hostile environments, similar to those found on many exoplanets. With so much potentially habitable real estate in the Universe. SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is trying to find out.