In all the years of dreaming...

In all the years of reading science fiction, writing it, and dreaming about it - perhaps the fiction part of science fiction can soon be removed. It gets the dream-cells going. :)

Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country

Another Earth?
26-Jan-2006

Astronomers have discovered what they call an "Earth-like planet" orbiting a distant star. They feel they are finally getting close to a possible discovery of alien life. They are searching for another relatively small, rocky planet where temperatures are neither too hot or too cold for life to exist.

Most of the planets we discover are huge, gaseous planets like Jupiter, because these are easy to see. However, we now know that a large outer planet may indicate that there is a habitable planet in the inner orbit of a solar system, because the large planet absorbs the blows from dangerous asteroids.

The new planet is five times the size of Earth and is unlikely to have life on it, because it's probably covered with frozen oceans. So why astronomers so excited? Because this discovery shows that it's possible to spot Earth-like planets around distant suns, meaning the day may not be too far off when we will discover alien life.