Seeding the universe with life is not just an option, it’s our moral obligation, says Michael Mautner, Research Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The suggested strategy: deposit an array of primitive organisms on potentially fertile planets and protoplanets throughout the universe.

Potential breeding grounds include extrasolar planets, accretion disks surrounding young stars that hold the gas and dust of future planets, and — at an even earlier stage — interstellar clouds that hold the materials to create stars.
—