What big, outstanding question in astronomy would you most like to see answered in your lifetime?
Oh, gosh. You know, this is going to make me feel a bit like a traitor to my field, because I study how galaxies evolve, how galaxies form stars, and what galaxies are made of and what they’re like. That’s what I do. And there are enough interesting and important questions about that to last a couple of lifetimes. But, as much as I love that science, I think the most important thing that astronomy could do is figure out whether we’re alone in the universe. Figure out whether there are other planets that are not only habitable but inhabited. What’s our place in the universe? I don’t know of a more profound question than that. I would hope—but this might be the idealist in me—that regardless of the answer, it would help us as a species to take better care of the one planet that we know can sustain life. It could be the case that this is a very rare oasis in a lonely universe.
— What the Webb Space Telescope Will Show Us Next
