Did you take your seat for the greatest show on Earth? Well, not quite on Earth. Last night, people around the world watched the Geminids, nicknamed the "king of meteor showersA celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky.." Sky-watchers could see up to 150 meteors an hour streaking across the sky.

It capped a dramatic year for astronomy and space exploration. SpaceXFounded in 2002 by South African entrepreneur Elon Musk, SpaceX's mission is to reduce the cost of space transportation to make possible the colonisation of Mars.'s Starship, billed as the most powerful rocket ever built, was launched in April. It fell into the sea. A second attempt in November did too.

There were great successes. In June, Richard BransonHis businesses have included Virgin Records, Virgin Trains and the space-tourism company Virgin Galactic.'s Virgin Galactic started taking tourists on rides to space.¹ In September, India became the fourth country to place a spacecraft on the moon, and the first to land near its south pole.² A month earlier, Russia's Luna-25 craft spun into orbitProxima b's orbit lasts 11.2 Earth days. and crashed while attempting the same feat.

Also in autumn, NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration, responsible for the US space programme. received its first batch of asteroidA small body in space, made of metal and rock material. Asteroids usually orbit the sun, but if knocked off course they can be drawn into Earth's gravity and fall towards it. matter for study, courtesy of its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. The sample from the 4.5 billion-year old asteroid Bennu has been found to contain carbon and water.

2023 might be seen as a landmark year for asteroid exploration. NASA also sent off a vessel named Psyche, which aims to travel to a unique metal-rich asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. Elsewhere, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched Juice, a rocket that will spend eight years exploring Jupiter's moons, including watery EuropaMany astrobiologists consider Jupiter's smallest moon to be the most likely place to find extraterrestrial life. An enormous ocean may lie beneath its water-ice crust, with underwater volcanoes creating thermal vents..

It has also been an amazing time for space photography. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) showed us a star about to explode, the tallest solar tornadoWhen the Sun emits huge bursts of energy in the form of solar flares. ever recorded and the Rho Ophiuchi, where stars are born.³

Yet perhaps the most thrilling discovery came late last month. Researchers revealed "the perfect solar system". HD110067, 100 light yearsA unit of measurement equal to the distance that light travels in one year, which is 9.4607 times 1012 km. That's nearly 6 million million miles! from us, features six similarly-sized planets that rotate in sync.⁴ Unchanged for 12 billion years, they might tell us much about how planets are formed.

Even more excitingly, the bright star at the centre of the system also makes it easier to look for signs of life. HD110067 might well be the place where we finally find alien lifeforms.

Humans have long been fascinated by life on other planets. In 1600, Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake for imagining super-powered cosmicRelating to the universe or cosmos. beings. 19th century American astronomer Percival Lowell was convinced he could see canals on Mars.

We have found very little evidence so far. But 2024 could be the year the tide turns. As astronomerA scientist that studies the universe and space. Prof. Catherine Heymans says: "We now have the technology and the capability to answer the question of whether we are alone in the cosmosThe universe, especially when it is understood as an ordered system.."

The OSIRIS-REx, Psyche and Juice missions all seek organicRelating to or derived from living matter. substances. They might provide further clues. And in September the JWBT may have discovered dimethyl sulphide (DMS) on a faraway planet - a chemical only produced by living creatures.⁵

Not everyone agrees we will, or even that life exists. Some scientists think that if aliens existed, someone would have made contact with us by now. 2023 could be remembered as the year we started to realise the search for aliens was a dead end.⁶

Yes: It is only a matter of time. From watery asteroids to DMS, the evidence is piling up at an unprecedentedNever been seen before. pace. The idea that only one planet in an infinite universe contains life was always absurd.

No: We want there to be life in space. It will bring excitement and help to explain our own existence. But we have no proof. And if it does exist, it may be very different from what we expect.

Or... It does not matter whether ET, or any alien life, is real or not. What matters is the search itself, which brings new discoveries about space and chemicals. And fuels our imagination.