Scientists Have Interesting Thoughts About What Aliens May Look Like

So, aliens, right? They're gangly predators who sprout tentacles from their skulls, and each tentacle has like 20 gnashing mouths on it. Or they're giant protoplasmic space blobs color-shifting in the sun as they hurtle spaceship-less to Earth to coat the planet in cosmic goo. Or you know, they're basically humans but with pointy ears, severe eyebrows, and a tendency to say, "Live long and prosper." The point is: aliens take the shape of human fears and dreams. They also reflect a storyteller's narrative goals in literature, films, TV, etc. So rather than use fiction to envision alien life, we should turn to real researchers.
But even amongst researchers, there's disagreement about the appearance of aliens. By current estimates, there are between 100 and 400 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way (per Space.com), but only one Earth and one example of so-called intelligent life. So what do we look for? As NASA has cataloged, we've discovered plenty of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system — but no evidence of aliens. But would we even recognize aliens if we found them? Should we scour the skies for evidence of advanced spacefaring civilizations who've encased their own stars in energy-harnessing Dyson spheres, as Science Focus says? Or should we check for biological rather than technological signatures of life in the composition of gases of atmospheres, like astrobiologists at NASA? In the end, we've got as many visions of "alien" as we have methods for finding them.
Scientists Have Interesting Thoughts About What Aliens May Look Like