The quick answer to this question is yes, but that would also be an incomplete answer.
Humans on Terra have a single reference point for evaluating their concepts of “Life”. Terra provides that viewpoint. But that is like looking at a glass, filled with clear liquid that you just filled it with, and then saying that the glass is filled with “water”. In itself, it is a true statement, but it, too, is an incomplete statement. Most people are unable to conceive that there may be “Life” contained within that glass of water – they are unable to see it without specialized tools and equipment, they are unable to test for it, and they may not understand any benefits that any Life residing in the water may have to them.
When humans discuss Life on other planets, the thoughts of most people would be on Extraterrestrials – ETs – that have been made famous through science fiction sources like magazines, books, and movies. And while that may be a good reference point to begin with, most people think of ETs and humanoid beings, generally between 3 and 9 feet tall, with 2 arms and 2 legs. They become very uncomfortable when the ET “Life” varies too far from this view. And they then let fear take over – most fear of the unknown. And to be fair, most of the movies involving people from other planets, the beings from those planets tend to fall into one of two categories – superheroes with vast powers, or evil creatures that have come here to take people away and experiment on them, possibly before eating them. The reality is really somewhere in between these two extremes.
Not all Life consists of variants of what Life is here on Terra. Nor is all other life the same size and composition of the various examples here on Terra. But many humans may not know this, because they lack enough imagination to enable them to consider other forms of Life, or places that other forms of Life may exist. While science has done a great job of identifying planets in other star systems several light years away, and characterizing the chemical makeup of those planets, we have no ability to comprehend what other forms of life may exist. We have stated in previous posts that DNA is an element that is common to all Life, everywhere; what this actually means is that there is no other form of “DNA” that would enable of forms of Life in other places. That Life on other planets, simply, share the exact same DNA that exists within every Living thing on Terra – even if that other Life form consists of a mass of tissue without any skeletal support.
One fact that most people, and to a degree many scientists, have not considered is that there is an extensive amount of Life that occupies the same Time and Space that humans on Terra occupy, but that Life has a slightly different reference – it is slightly out of phase with the Energies that we are aware of, or in a slightly different dimension, or its characteristics are generally unavailable to us. There is a very good example of this: Orbs. Orbs are entities that appear to us as round Energies; they most often show up in photographs of videos and circular light objects that move from one side of the display to the other. Humans are generally unable to see them with the naked eye; human vision will see or sense Energy, and that is then sent to the brain to interpret. But that “image” consists of a series of images that are averaged over time. But if you take a picture with a standard digital (or analog) camera, especially in the evening or at night, you will occasionally see what appears to be a light floating across the screen or picture. The reason that a camera can see an Orb but not a human is because the camera will capture and image in a fraction of a second, and then store that image for later viewing; even a video camera takes a very fast series of snapshots that are then strung together to make a video, with each frame of the video being an separate and distinct picture. This is something that humans are unable to do.
Life on other planets, or even Life in other realms on this planet, can be treated in the same way, if we would like to see it. We must first try to identify how it might exist, and then develop the tools and equipment to investigate it further. Orbs are a good example; they are seen as a “fringe” phenomenon, that have as yet not captured the imagination of science long enough to be a focus of study. It is much easier to just say that they are not real – they are unable (or unwilling) to collected Orbs and place them in a jar to study, nor are they able to quantify the phenomenon adequately to assess what they really are. Other life is the same; it is always much easier to study the things that we know, simply because we can see or touch them, which allows us to quantify them in some manner. But beings in another dimension here on Terra are quite something else; how does one “measure” something that they can only begin to conceive of through the use of theoretical science? As a scientist, I would say to begin with what you believe you know about the other environment; they will have Energy, and at least in theory Energy can be measured. But how does one account for differences in Space and Time?
And as for other Life Forms, I do believe that they have visited Terra from other planets, and many of them may reside here with us, without our knowledge. How would we identify them? It would clearly be easy if they all had a purple nose, but they do not. And even if they were a mass of tissue without skeletal form, where would they feel most comfortable? On land, where movement may be a challenge? Or in the ocean, which would offer far less resistance to movement? And what would we do if we were to find it? Dissect it to find out more about it? Or simply kill it before it kills us? Neither will be possible until we begin to think just a bit more outside of the little boxes that we have built for ourselves.