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There and Back Again: Lessons From Home for our Search for Life in the Universe Shawn Domagal-Goldman, Oak Ridge Associated Universities Fellow at NASA HQ There are hundreds – and soon to be thousands – of known planets outside our solar system, referred to as “exoplanets.” The study of these objects has delivered shocking results that have revolutionized our thinking on how planets form, interact, and evolve through time. The vast majority of exoplanet research has been done with indirect observations, wherein we discover exoplanets based on their affects on observations of stars. The next step will be to study exoplanets directly. A mission dedicated to this will allow us to examine their potential to host life, and to conduct a broad search for life on their surfaces. This search will be informed by lessons we are learning from missions at destinations spread throughout our own solar system. In turn, this search could bring about another revolution to our understanding of life itself. Such a revolution would shock our views on how life arises, interacts with, and evolves within planetary environments.