While nobody really knows what an 'alien' looks like, Hollywood films and sci-fi novels often depict aliens as scary, supernatural beings. Typically they have a reverse teardrop-shaped head, buggy eyes and slimy, grey skin. They're usually more intelligent than humans, perhaps even be immortal. Popular culture makes it seem as if one day Earthlings will find out extraterrestrial life exists when we encounter such a being, but the reality is likely going to be very different from what our imaginations suggest.
As U.S. lawmakers push to declassify UFO-related records, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) searches for extraterrestrial life on exoplanets via the James Webb Space Telescope, how scientists will know that they've found extraterrestrial life — and what it will even look like — is a question on many folks' minds.
