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Good morning. Is there anyone out there? Are we alone in the universe? Well, astronomers this week are telling us, maybe not. There are rumours of life on a distant planet. Life, or, at least, a molecule that suggests life. A small sign, a possibility. This is the stuff of science fiction – aliens, other planets, the possibility of expanding our horizons – as the famous Star Trek tagline goes, ‘to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before’. Human beings stare in wonder at the stars, we long to explore, but at the same time feel a tug of loneliness, dwarfed by this huge, incomprehensible, and possibly dangerous universe. Looking at the stars reminds us of our fragility, of how small we are, and so we look for life like ours, we try to connect and find a way to make the universe less strange, less threatening, less alien. In science fiction, many aliens look like modified humans – real strangeness can be too much to imagine. Sometimes looking out is a way of escape, too. Our planet is being ruined by climate change, could space and its vast possibility be a plan B? And yet, what guarantee is there that we’d do any better elsewhere? Paradoxically, looking out and exploring are connected to our sense of home. We need a secure home, some roots, to have the energy and resources to explore. Faced with the unknown, with immensity, we need a place to return to, somewhere safe, that reminds us of who we are, and shapes how we engage with the unknown and the stranger. This place to return to reminds us to care: care for the home we have, and to care for any new world we may one day encounter. A very wise friend of mine often says, if you look to Christianity to escape from the world, you will meet Jesus going the other way. In other words, faith shouldn’t be an escape, it should help us to engage more deeply with life as it is. I wonder whether there’s a lesson for space exploration here too: if it’s just an escape, either for dreaming, or because we imagine finding an alternative to our own planet, we risk spoiling new worlds as we’ve spoilt the Earth already. At its best, looking out to space can remind us of what our world could be, and drive us to care for our own home more deeply, so that if we do ever strike out into the great unknown, our own planet will be a thriving home to return to.