Have you ever wondered whether there’s intelligent life beyond our planet? A guest speaker who addressed a crowd at Kansas University on Sunday night believes there is.

Seth Shostak is a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute. He also hosts a weekly radio show called “Are We Alone?”

The free event at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union included a slideshow presentation on the astronomer’s theories and findings regarding extraterrestrial life.

When asked how he responds when people suggest he’s joking, he said, “They might think it’s a joke. They could have thought the same thing of Chris Columbus if he walked around the bars of Spain in 1491, and said, ‘You know, I’m going to cross the ocean. Who knows what I’ll find. It might be interesting.'”

Shostak has published approximately 50 research papers in professional journals on the subject of intelligent life in outer space. His most recent publication is a book called “Confessions of an Alien Hunter.”

He said about his work, “That is what this is, it’s exploration. There’s good reason to believe there may be cosmic company. I’m optimistic we will find something within a few decades.”

Shostak recently appeared as a guest on “Larry King Live” and “The Colbert Report.”