If life (microbes, spores etc) can be carried on interstellar comets/asteriods, maybe the distinction between "alien" and "terrestrial" is an artificial human construction.

Why the downvotes? The article refers to this paper from August this year: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S007961071...

Signed by 33 authors and published in a peer-reviewed, seemingly established journal. Thanks for the pointer!

What we see as an octopus is only a three dimensional slice of their true form, obviously. They are actually a physical manifestation of the monster group.