Space, the Final Frontier: In the Scientific Pursuit of Extraterrestrial Life Away from Earth

For decades we have been searching for an answer to the knotty question, "do aliens exist?". Other questions in line are: "where are they?", "are they like us, sophisticated intelligent beings?" or "do they exist in the form of simpler lifeforms?", "Have they ever visited us?", "Why haven't we encountered them yet?", "or have we?" To satiate this curiosity, astrophysicists and astronomers have come up with innumerable theories and ideas, engaged in building facilities and institutes and come up with a planet-wide effort for the search of extraterrestrial intelligence - SETI@home. This article will take a ride through time, from the first documented idea to look for extraterrestrial beings to the current exploration of this field.