I was skeptical of the article at first because it seemed to be lacking the usual stuff you see in scientific articles - discovering scientists and their universities for example. Then there was nothing about this at my usual astronomy websites, nor at the SETI webpage - and one of their scientists is quoted in the article. Even a Google search yielded little. I did find a similar article at space.com though, so I'm happy it is true.

As for the travel time to the new planet, I think we should fire off a shipment of Twinkies right away as a peace offering to whoever or whatever is there. At least they will be fresh no matter how long the journey takes. Knowing our luck though, when we get there, the planet will be inhabited by giant mutant sentient Twinkies bent on revenge.

Joking aside, if we manage to even detect circumstantial evidence of life, it could spur interest and money to begin serious development of interstellar vehicles.