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We are not alone: 'trillions' of planets could be supporting life
Times Online ^ | 02/15/09 | Mark Henderson

Posted on 02/15/2009 11:03:43 AM PST by KevinDavis

Trillions of planets that are capable of harbouring life are probably orbiting Sun-like stars, making it almost certain that humanity is not alone in the Universe, a leading astronomer said yesterday.

The discovery of hundreds of planets around distant stars in our galaxy suggests that most solar systems have a world like ours that is capable of supporting life, and many of them are likely to have evolved it, according to Alan Boss, of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, DC.

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: space; xplanets
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To: bert
I'm a big fan of Heinlein. Haven't read that one. I know where you're coming from. I love caving and exploring. I would be more than willing for NASA to be funded if it would let me go exploring. Would I want to fund NASA so other guys could go exploring? Eh, not so much.

As to learning about what's on Mars, if we accept that at most ten or twelve people will go there at great expense and come back home, what is the value to us here on earth? The early explorers went for gold, for silk, for spices, and sometimes to build a new life in a strange land. That's not here. Not in space exploration. In space exploration we've got the desire to explore and scientific and intellectual curiosity. I don't think that is enough to sustain the level of effort required to do what we'd need to do to reach out beyond Mars at the most, except for the stray unmanned satellite every few years.

81 posted on 02/16/2009 12:25:27 PM PST by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: Deb

I’m with you on that. If it won’t make you any money, I know it.


82 posted on 02/16/2009 12:26:21 PM PST by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: KevinDavis

We should tax them ALL! (/sarcaasm)


83 posted on 02/16/2009 12:29:38 PM PST by listenhillary (Rahm Emmanuel slip - A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.)
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