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A call to address humanity’s cosmic footprint

Nature Astronomy volume 9, pages 934–935 (2025)Cite this article

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This is a critical moment in the history of Earth: humans are ending 3.5–3.8 billion years of relative isolation of the terrestrial biosphere from interaction with its cosmic environment1,2, and may now leave lasting physical, chemical, biological, and unforeseen impacts beyond Earth. Crewed missions, alongside technological advancements in the new space age — such as miniaturization and the use of artificial intelligence — accelerate this trend. Decisions with potentially far-reaching cosmic consequences are being made. Hence, there is an urgent need for action.

Amongst the array of possible effects following our space endeavours, some may lead — through chain reactions or exponential mechanisms — to substantial, large scale, and/or irreversible changes, such as: (1) geomorphologic alterations3 impacting entire planetary landscapes; (2) changes of celestial dynamics4, leading to asteroid impacts or exponentially growing orbital debris; (3) large scale spread of chemicals5, altering chemical evolution and the potential for emergence or evolution of lifeforms on a given body; (4) the spread of terrestrial lifeforms, inducing the creation of new biospheres or destruction/interaction with pre-existing ones6,7; and (5) the changes in Earth’s electromagnetic signature, thereby increasing the potential for identification by putative extraterrestrial intelligence8,9.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) for providing a platform that facilitated productive research and scholarly exchange. The valuable support of C. Bacri, Justin A. Holcomb, and D. Vieira de Miranda is gratefully acknowledged. K.T. discloses support for the research of this work from the JST Moonshot R&D Program (Grant No. JPMJMS2389) and JSPS-KAKENHI (Grant No. 24K03355), and O.S. from the Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation (Grant No. 3022).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR 8011 – Sciences, Normes, Démocratie (CNRS / Sorbonne Université), Paris, France

    Adrien Normier

  2. Geology Department, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA

    Asmaa Boujibar

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA

    Asmaa Boujibar

  4. LGPM laboratory CentraleSupélec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    David Boulesteix

  5. Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Oskari Sivula

  6. Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK

    Ian A. Crawford

  7. Institute for Theoretical Physics, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Claudius Gros

  8. Lunar MVI, Washington, DC, USA

    Charles Horikami

  9. Faculty of Humanities, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

    Koji Tachibana

  10. Independent Researcher, Hulhumale, Maldives

    Raushan Ali Firaq

  11. Independent Researcher, Lyon, France

    Valentin Degrange

  12. Independent Researcher, Montréal, Canada

    Noemi Giammichele

  13. Académie des Sciences, Institut de France, Paris, France

    Pierre Léna

  14. Independent Researcher, Pleaux, France

    Noémie Mazaré

  15. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Claude Nicollier

  16. Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA, USA

    George Profitiliotis

  17. Spring Institute for Forests on the Moon, Pleaux, France

    Enock Rutunda

  18. METI International, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Douglas Vakoch

  19. Advanced Materials and Science Engineering Center, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA

    Asmaa Boujibar

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  1. Adrien Normier
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Correspondence to Adrien Normier.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Normier, A., Boujibar, A., Boulesteix, D. et al. A call to address humanity’s cosmic footprint. Nat Astron 9, 934–935 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02606-7

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