A brief guide to looking for aliens

Astrophysicist Jason Wright, who directs the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center, did not seem incredibly happy with a question I asked him toward the end of our recent interview.

“No, no. We haven’t found any aliens of course,” he answered.

But would they know evidence of aliens if they came across it? 

"That's [a question] we wrestle with a lot," he says. 

Searching for life beyond Earth is harder than it sounds

When researchers look for life close by — like in our Solar System — they can search for direct evidence of living things.