In a Q&A, UC Berkeley astronomer Gibor Basri reality-checks the recent sci-fi movie and talks about the chances of encountering life elsewhere in the galaxy.
In the sci-fi book and now movie Project Hail Mary, astronaut Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling, encounters three different alien lifeforms in the vicinity of Earth. He joins forces with one of them, from the star 40 Eridani, to try to stop another, an alien microbe from Tau Ceti, that is eating stars — including our sun. The third lifeform saves the day.
Aliens have long been a common trope in science fiction, but for audiences not steeped in Star Trek and Star Wars or who may be skeptical that UFOs are alien spacecraft, this premise may seem far-fetched.
So we asked UC Berkeley astronomer Gibor Basri, who has conducted research on distant planets, how likely it is that life exists around two stars a relatively short distance from Earth, with one being an advanced technocivilization.
Read the full story here: https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/04/09/in-project-hail-mary-ryan-gosling-encounters-aliens-how-likely-is-that/