Our solar system, shown in this composite image, has had a big effect on humanity NASA/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Ripples on the Cosmic OceanDagomar DegrootViking, UK; Belknap Press, US If you pay attention to news from beyond Earth – and, as a New Scientist reader, the chances are you do – then you may have heard about hints of life on a faraway planet, or perhaps the news that a Mars Rover found possible signs of ancient life in distinctive spotted rocks. You might also remember the brief period, around a year ago, when it seemed as if a deadly asteroid might strike Earth. As exciting as these events were, they also quickly faded into a background hum, all too easily usurped by more pressing and all too real events on Earth, like new wars or imminent climate catastrophe. The tantalising possibility of microbes belching out gas on a planet more than a trillion kilometres away might spark the imagination for a few minutes, perhaps even trigger a restless night, but what relevance do these cosmic …