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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) by MrGuy on Thursday April 09 2015, @02:44PM
Coming from a chief NASA scientist, a statement of "belief" like this with a vague timeframe is grossly irresponsible.
I'm not saying he's wrong. But if life is discovered, it will be by some kind of NASA (or ESA or other agency) mission. So which missions do you think have a chance of discovering life? Put another way - what do you think will happen in the next 10-20 years that we think might plausibly discover life? Obviously, we can't know what missions actually WILL discover life until they do so, but at least we can predict which ones have a plausible chance. To borrow his phrase, now that we know where to look, when and how will we actually be looking?
Are there existing, functioning missions (Hubble? Opportunity?) by NASA or others that you think might plausibly discover life? If so, what are some of the scenarios where you might envision that happening?
Are there currently planned missions that are being sent to places where you think they can plausibly discover life? If so, what missions? Where are they going? How do you envision they might find them?
Or are these new missions that have been proposed but not planned yet? If so, what has been proposed and what will it do?
If you don't have answers to these questions, how could you make such a statement? If you're the chief scientist at NASA, your job is to know these missions and their goals. And as a scientist, it's your job to make predictions based on facts, not personal belief.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fishybell on Thursday April 09 2015, @09:33PM
Small stab:
Man, looking at this list you'd think maybe NASA had some sort of "we're searching for life" fetish...or at least a strategic plan [nasa.gov] (see Objective 1.6: Discover how the universe works, explore how it began and evolved, and search for life on planets around other stars.).