Once we embark, we have chosen a destination, but recognize that we likely will need to adjust our routes and tactics to get there (and wemaydiscover a new, even better destination along the way).
And we have more than 200 planets around other stars that we know about today, and also about what wemay expect to discover in the future in our own solar system.
"With advanced multibeam sonar, it may become routine to discover seeps while we systematically explore our poorly known ocean, " NOAA scientist Stephen Hammond said in the statement.