Hunting For Earths

Hundreds of solar systems have been picked out of the sky; all harbor exoplanets the size of Jupiter or larger, but so far other Earths have eluded astronomers. NASA's Kepler space telescope, however, is expected to give the first reliable count of any habitable planets. Credit: NASA/NRC Canada/C. Marois et al.

From Discovery:

A new NASA mission in search of exoplanets has experts weighing in on whether we'll find life off Earth.

Earth seems so alone, drifting through space -- but are there other Earth-like worlds out there capable of supporting life, and if so how many are there nearby?

To answer that question once and for all, NASA is sending the Kepler telescope into space. Once there, it will stare down thousands of stars to seek out the slightest glimpse of a small, rocky world like our own.

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