Woody is a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, who discussed the new doctorate study in astrobiology. In history, there have been individuals who did not consider the Earth as the only place in the universe where life existed. People have long been speculating about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. An example is in a book called the Conversations on Plurality of Worlds by Fontanelle. The premise is that God would not have made other stars if there were not other planets around them.
Astrobiology embraces the big scale of astronomy and the small scale of biology.
Planets are now known to be going around other stars. Though most astronomers believed this was the case, it has now been demonstrated to be fact. The Martian meteorite that landed in Australia triggered interest in this, although the conclusion drawn initially that this meteorite contained microbial life appears to have been wrong. However, theoretically, there could be fossils delivered from one planet to another. Europa probably has a liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust.