Better yet, perhaps life in the universe is really common, but we happen to live in a the middle of a cosmic desert for life. Or a period in the universe's lifespan where intelligent life is almost unknown, but a billion years ago space was a regular Star Wars disco and we happen to live after the lights went down. Or we happen to be one of the first intelligent species to arise, and a trillion years from now that planet will be looking for allies and we will be long gone.

Even if that planet has life as we would recognize it, and it happens to be intelligent, and they happen to be looking our way, it'd be 600 years before they'd see us waving. And another 600 years before we'd see them waving back.

And let's not forget, that's not a picture of the planet. All anyone knows right now is there is a possible massive body orbiting a star 600 light years away. Killer we can detect that kind of object, but utterly ridiculous to be discussing possibility of life at this point. IMHO. Then again, I'm not looking for a gov't grant for further research

(I'm all for further research, just think it's ballsy and irresponsible to be predicting life when all we have is a flicker on a photo for evidence of a planet.)