Oh yes, there are large groups of differing atoms absolutely everywhere.
Now, if you squint hard enough . . .
How many generations of stars must there be within the proximity of a local group before life can become emergent? We need to ask these types of questions first.
Actually the blurb says "alien life" (not "intelligent life") so the thread title is misleading. And they have no proof, just statistical conjecture as usual.
Orson Wells knew how to have a good laugh at the expense of Mr and Mrs Hillbilly. I believe I can see him blowing cigar smoke and laughing even harder still.
NASA will not be the one to announce intelligent alien life. We'll find that out when one either flies by and so many people see it clearly (no blurry lights that may be a UFO) that it cant' be denied or it will land and contact may be initialized.
So, your general rule of thumb ANY TIME you see a report coming or announced from NASA about life being found, is:
Fossils of worms or microbes on Mars or some other planet.
Space dust with potential microbial life.
Speculation of possible life once existing because of speculation about water and atmosphere on a planet.
Speculation life of some kind may exist on another Earth-life planet in a habitable zone around some sun that might as well be a bazillion light years away.
That's it. In other words, I'd spend my time more wisely than reading another useless announcement from NASA about alien life.
NASA will not be the one to announce intelligent alien life. We'll find that out when one either flies by and so many people see it clearly (no blurry lights that may be a UFO) that it cant' be denied or it will land and contact may be initialized.
So, your general rule of thumb ANY TIME you see a report coming or announced from NASA about life being found, is:
Fossils of worms or microbes on Mars or some other planet.
Space dust with potential microbial life.
Speculation of possible life once existing because of speculation about water and atmosphere on a planet.
Speculation life of some kind may exist on another Earth-life planet in a habitable zone around some sun that might as well be a bazillion light years away.
That's it. In other words, I'd spend my time more wisely than reading another useless announcement from NASA about alien life.
Finding microbial life elsewhere would be a game changer and a huge announcement. And NASA will likely be the ones to do so. Now proving life started independently from Earth will be very hard if the biology is the same. So even if they made such a discovery there would be a lot of nagging questions.