While the SETI Institute is investigating interstellar space for extraterrestrial life, we may find it in our own cosmic backyard. It is unlikely to be anything other than microbial life, but even that would be a seismic, perception-altering discovery.

The American space agency NASA and private partner SpaceX launched the Europa Clipper mission targeting one of Jupiter's moons

It's attached to a spacecraft called the Europa Clipper, NASA's solar-winged, silvery probe built to study the intricacies of a Jovian moon that could have harbored life long ago, per scientists' calculations.

The spacecraft will be NASA's first dedicated to studying a distant ice-covered moon in our solar system to determine whether it could be habitable for life.