NASA's best and brightest believe the human race on Earth is not the only one of its kind in the universe and that it is only a matter of time before we find another.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Ellen Stofan, NASA's chief scientist, told attendees of a public panel in Washington on Tuesday the term "alien life" may not even apply to another human (or humanoid) race.
"I believe we are going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years," she said at the event. "We know where to look, we know how to look, and in most cases we have the technology.
"We are talking about little microbes."
In analyzing Mars, a planet close to Earth in our own solar system, NASA has found several signs that water once existed on its surface with an atmosphere that once could have supported life. Those finds have been completely reliant on robotic rovers and satellites, so Stofan said she was confident a human geologist could find a fossil or two if given the chance.
"NASA science activities have provided a wave of amazing findings related to water in recent years that inspire us to continue investigating our origins and the fascinating possibilities for other worlds, and life, in the universe," Stofan said, according to a NASA press release. "In our lifetime, we may very well finally answer whether we are alone in the solar system and beyond."
Another point of interest NASA has taken in our own solar system is Jupiter's moon Europa, which has shown signs of harboring subsurface oceans. NASA has officially proposed a plan to send a satellite to orbit Jupiter and get close-up looks at Europa.
"We now recognize that habitable zones are not just around stars, they can be around giant planets too," Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA, said at the panel, according to the Times. "We are finding out the solar system is really a soggy place.
"I don't know what we are going to find [at Europa]."
