After Copernicus and Galileo showed that Earth is not the center of the cosmos, it became easy to imagine our world as an ordinary speck of dust in space. Columbia University astrobiologist Caleb Scharf wonders if that is entirely true. In The Copernicus Complex, he notes that our sun is brighter and larger than most stars, our solar system is unusual in configuration and our world occupies prime placement for the evolution of life (as we know it). Scharf asserts, “There is no apparent peculiarity about life on Earth,” but admits, “We also have conflicting observations about our place in the universe.” Is life a rare or common occurrence? He concludes that with the present state of knowledge, “Neither side is yet a winner.”
