I read with intense interest this morning an article in The New York Times Magazine about the Voyager probes. They were launced in 1977 and, have now, reached beyond the boundaries of our solar system. The story was as much a human interest story--many of the same engineers who launched the probes are still working on the project--as it was a science article. The overwhelming question is what will the Voyager probes find beyond our solar system.

As an avid science fiction fan, I hope and believe that they will find inteligent life beyond our borders.  Apparently, there are approximately 300 billion stars in the Milky Way. So, if ten percent of those stars had just one planet circling them that alone would be ten billion planets. From a purely numbers standpoint it would seem that there has to be other forms of life out there.

Of course, I look at the numbers as someone who would be excited to hear from other life forms. But I recognize that there are othere who believe we are alone here and would not welcome such contact. Which side do you fall on? Are we alone or are you, like me, waiting for Scotty to beam you up?