With the recent passing of the great John Glenn, a man who will forever be remembered as the first American to orbit the Earth, we look again to the sky and can’t help but wonder what else is out there. There is growing interest in what Mars has to offer, but NASA has been looking for Earth-size planets orbiting other stars since March 2009. NASA’s Kepler telescope has discovered more than half of today’s known Earth-like exoplanets. In our galaxy alone, there could be up to 40 billion exoplanets similar to earth.
Don’t get too excited and pack your bags just yet, Proxima B is our closest Earth-like exoplanet that could support life at 4.2 lights years away. And while there is a chance of life, it’s believe that alien life is simple and would die young, so we don’t need to worry about an Indepence Day situation just yet.
While the questions remains as to life on other planets or could we call another planet home, we still have lots to learn about our own planet.