What Would We Even Do If We Found Aliens?

Space agencies like NASA and the European Space Agency are exceptionally busy searching our solar system for evidence of otherworldly life, but do we know what we’d do if we ever happened upon intelligent life forms?

As it turns out, there’s no real protocol for this circumstance. If NASA, or any other space agency for that matter, happened to discover intelligent life on another planet, then we’d likely rely on our instincts to figure out what we’d do next.

Why is there no plan? Perhaps because space agencies don’t think we’re anywhere close to finding and communicating with intelligent alien life.

To make matters worse, stellar systems like our own are so far away that we have no means of visiting them any time in the near future. That said… is there even a point in having such a protocol?