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They are not expecting large-headed, lanky humanoids with oval-shaped black eyes hiding behind a crater on mars; instead they fully expect to find microbial life very soon for a number of reasons. Mainly, we finally are starting to "know where to look, we know how to look, and in most cases we have the technology."
From the article:
[Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA] also described another recent study that used measurements of aurora on Jupiter's moon Ganymede to prove it has a large liquid ocean beneath its icy crust. The findings suggest that previous ideas about where to find "habitable zones" may have been too limited. "We now recognize that habitable zones are not just around stars, they can be around giant planets too," Green said. "We are finding out the solar system is really a soggy place." He also talked NASA's plans for a mission to Europa, another moon of Jupiter with an icy ocean. "I don't know what we are going to find there," he said.
NASA associate administrator John Grunsfeld, said part of what excites him most about the search for life beyond our planet is to see what that life looks like. "Once we get beyond Mars, which formed from the same stuff as Earth, the likelihood that life is similar to what we find on this planet is very low," he said.Grunsfeld said he believes that life beyond Earth will be found by the next generation of scientists and space explorers, but Green said he hopes it is sooner than that.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2015, @09:01AM
The Law of Futurology [smbc-comics.com]
y - t = 0
y = approximate number of years left in the life of a futurist
t = years futurist thinks it will be until immortality is discovered
Man: "Things are gonna change in 60 - 70 years."
Man (older): "Things are gonna change in 30 - 40 years."
Man (even older): "Things are gonna change by 3PM tomorrow."
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday April 09 2015, @12:31PM
That formula is incomplete, because there's another important rule:
t > r
t = years futurist thinks it will be before whatever it is they're predicting happens.
r = the length of time that the audience will remember that the prediction was made and go back and check to see if it was right.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Funny) by maxwell demon on Thursday April 09 2015, @05:54PM
OK, so we have y − t = 0 and t > r.
From that it mathematically follows that r < y.
In other words, the length of time that the audience will remember that the prediction was made is always smaller than the approximate number of years left in the life of a futurist.
Or in short: Listening to an ageing futurist causes amnesia.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by nightsky30 on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:41PM
Man (even older, Soylent kind): "Things are gonna GET OFF MY LAWN!!!"