"Also what does this say about the possibility of life outside of earth?" A certainty. In fact, we may one day decide that life is just one of the phases of ma

"Also what does this say about the possibility of life outside of earth?" A certainty. In fact, we may one day decide that life is just one of the phases of matter, along side liquid, solid, gas, plasma, and Bose-Einstein condensate. Whether humanity ever finds anything more sophisticated than extraterrestrial algal mats before we go extinct is another matter.