It's a likely target. I doubt intelligent life. They are probably aiming for microbial life, which is quite realistic within our own solar system, I'd say.
For different reasons, microbial and intelligent life both need a hell of a lot of scrutiny that will take time though. Microbial life could be contamination from earth, clinging on to the technology as it gets launched into space.
Intelligent life would come from such an extensive distance that we don't have technology to directly observe them. We can look at spectral analysis of exo-planet atmosphere and perhaps analyse whether it consists of organic methane, for example, but that is not an easy task and can't confidently be proven.
That being said, the new James Webb Telescope could provide a little more details in that regard. Pretty exciting.
NASA believes we will find life by 2025. The question is whether people will trust it.
It's a likely target. I doubt intelligent life. They are probably aiming for microbial life, which is quite realistic within our own solar system, I'd say.
For different reasons, microbial and intelligent life both need a hell of a lot of scrutiny that will take time though. Microbial life could be contamination from earth, clinging on to the technology as it gets launched into space.
Intelligent life would come from such an extensive distance that we don't have technology to directly observe them. We can look at spectral analysis of exo-planet atmosphere and perhaps analyse whether it consists of organic methane, for example, but that is not an easy task and can't confidently be proven.
That being said, the new James Webb Telescope could provide a little more details in that regard. Pretty exciting.
its pretty much guaranteed, personally i think there already here ;)
It's cool to think about, no doubt!