• Saucer-table talks: Experts who spoke at a hearing of the House Science Committee in Washington on Wednesday included (from left) Mary Voytek, a senior scientist for astrobiology at NASA's planetary science division; Sara Seager, a professor of physics and planetary science at MIT; and Steven Dick, chair of astrobiology at the Library of Congress. | THE WASHINGTON POST
    Saucer-table talks: Experts who spoke at a hearing of the House Science Committee in Washington on Wednesday included (from left) Mary Voytek, a senior scientist for astrobiology at NASA's planetary science division; Sara Seager, a professor of physics and planetary science at MIT; and Steven Dick, chair of astrobiology at the Library of Congress. | THE WASHINGTON POST

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WASHINGTON – Lawmakers held a free-ranging and sometimes bewildering hearing Wednesday on the search for extraterrestrial life, gradually working around to the question of whether humans are alone in the universe. At the end of the 90-minute session, that issue remained unresolved.

Called “Astrobiology: The Search for Biosignatures in our Solar System and Beyond,” the House Science Committee’s hearing featured three witnesses with doctorates who are prominent in a scientific field that once was considered speculative.

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