The world is ending. Not right now, mind you, but we can rest assured that it will end. Whether from massive star explosions in nearby solar systems, a collision with another body in space or the death of our own sun, life on this planet — all life — at one point will cease to be. And according to Michael Mautner of Virginia Commonwealth University, we have a moral obligation to seed life throughout the universe before that happens.

Mautner, a research professor of chemistry, argues in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Cosmology that as the product of 4 billion years of evolution from early life forms that very well may have been deposited here from elsewhere in the universe, we have an obligation to keep the evolutionary ball rolling. Self-perpetuation is ingrained in our DNA, and there’s no reason that should be limited to our tiny rock.

It seems like an impossible task; the universe is a hostile place, and even with missions like Kepler designed to identify earth-like planets circling faraway stars we may never find one suited to life as we know it. But it’s important to remember that Earth was once a hostile neighborhood as well; hardy little organisms spent millions upon millions of years sucking down toxic gasses and withstanding harsh environmental conditions before creating a habitat for higher evolution. Kick-starting that process on other planets is our moral duty, Mautner says.

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