The odds of humans being alone in this universe now seem a lot smaller than they did Monday. Astronomers announced Tuesday that there are billions of potentially habitable Earth-sized planets in the Galaxy. The figure comes from data collected by NASA's Kepler space telescope. With so many potentially habitable planets, contact with extraterrestrials seems more probable. And while that day is probably still far off, protocols are in place to speak as one planet when it comes. Astronomer Jill Tarter has been thinking about those protocols her entire career. She directs the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, which started more than 50 years ago. In the beginning, when the Institute was funded by the US government, a government protocol was in place, Tarter says. However, since 1993, SETI has been privately funded and the protocol doesn't necessarily include alerting the US president if life is found. Instead, says Tarter, the protocol is a loose set of steps. "Mak
