For years, Star Trek and other sci-fi gadgets have lept out of the screen and into our lives. But while mobile phones, video-conferencing, real-time systems monitoring and online collaboration are now staples of modern life, alien life has remained a fixture in the sci-fi closet. A growing community of scientists and explorers with ever more sophisticated technology are looking to change that in our lifetime. Since the 1990′s, they have already identified over 300 extrasolar planets — planets revolving around stars other than our own — and some of them are said to contain water. Even Jupiter is said to . . . . . .