Life, life, and more life....

There has to be life elsewhere in the universe.
Our current view in biology is that life started much earlier in Earth's history and perhaps in places much more supposedly inhospitable to it than we thought. The history of our planet is that in spite of numerous disasters, catastrophes, and extinctions, life persists and extends its reach in the face of all attempts to crush it. Life is adaptable with a really, really big A.
When I was in grade school (before there was color) there were two kingdoms of living things: Animals & Plants. Now there are five: Animals, Plants, Fungi, Monera, and Protists. I predict that soon we will have a sixth: Viruses. (The picture is of a Virus, not a 1950s B-movie alien, BTW.)
And the reason I think there is life throughout the universe? It is a lot "easier" than we thought for life to emerge from the soup. Our corner of spacetime has "only" billions and billions of life forms, with new ones being found every day. Given the number of spacetime coordinates that exist, life elsewhere is inevitable. I doubt we will ever see any of it, but I for one would love to examine a silicon-based life form!