Not OP but the one who cleans sees all.

You forgot giant. It applies to some of us more than others.

They don’t. This could be an incredibly short sided move if it drives the resulting knowledge gains outside of US influence.

They make enough money off the rubes. They should just let us nerds have this one.

I read a short story once that described a whole ecosystem thriving in magma. The story detailed an intelligent species of explorers that inadvertently killed all life on the surface when they poked their heads up to see what was up here. They had concluded that life couldn’t possibly exist at the frigid temperatures and wispy pressures in which we live. This hydrothermal vent discovery gives me hope that those bastards might be down there right now, getting ready to crack the crust at any moment.