Out-of-this-world possibilities: A look at life-sustaining planets beyond Earth

For as long as man has looked up at the heavens, he's pondered one question: Are we alone in the universe? While the answer remains unclear, there's a tonne of research being conducted to determine just what life-sustaining planets beyond Earth might exist -- and what they might look like. There's no shortage of imaginative renderings and fiction about what such worlds may entail, as well. Countless movies and works of literature envision fantastical worlds full of complex life forms and spacecraft that travel at physics-defying speeds. In EA Games' latest installment of the Mass Effect series, Mass Effect: Andromeda, game designers bring a variety of hypotheticals to life.