One of the biggest, most dazzling, most exciting questions in space is a seemingly simple one.

Are we alone in this universe?

There's hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable universe.

Through sheer numbers alone, in my mind, it's unlikely that it's only us.

It's Monday, October 23rd, and today, as always, is Science Friday.

I'm sci-fi producer Rasha Afridi.

In her recent memoir, astronomer and astrobiologist Dr. Oomoa Shields

describes her search for signs of life

in the cosmos, and in parallel, her quest to build a meaningful life here on Earth.

Guest host and fellow space nerd Swapna Krishna talks with Dr. Aomoa Shields, author of Life

on Other Planets, a memoir of finding my place in the universe.

Welcome to Science Friday. Thank you. I'm so thrilled to be here.

Let's start at the beginning. Where did your fascination with outer space come from?

Well, ever since I can remember, I was that person who was looking up at the sky.

I would run into telephone poles on the street as a little girl because I was looking up.

And I remember as a child going to these air shows for the Blue Angels aerial flight team.

And that got me to thinking more about what's up there.

And so I started to look up at night and see all these stars and keep asking those questions.

What's up there?

How far does space go?

And eventually, are we alone in the universe?

From very early on, you felt torn really between two things that you love very much acting in science. And then

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