Wow!, Wow, and Wow!!
So, some planets are dense in metals, and others are not: 375 light years away; a Carl Sagan “billions of years ago.”
I guess that will make it very difficult for the super heads to explain Earth, a metallic planet: vs. with Jupitor or Neptune, gaseous planets. Here, in our own sun system. Who woulda thunk?
How much grant money is funneled to these folk???
Astronomers have shoestring bugets.. In 2005 NASA had a budget of $16.2 billion, this includes not only the human spaceflight division, but also other engineering projects, and science funded by NASA. The total federal spending budget in 2005 was on the order of $2 trillion ($2000 billion), making the NASA share 0.8% of the budget. By comparison roughly 19% of the budget was spent on the Military, 21% on Social Security and 8% went to paying interest on the national debt.
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=684