On a planet—13 light years away

Once again I look to the stars for answers to that age old question, is there anyone out there? The article reports on earth like planets as close as 13 light years, which in terms of space, makes them close enough that some day we may actually be able to explore and even send robot ships to these planets. We might learn if life is a process found in other solar systems besides our own. Those who like such series as Star Treck should welcome such searches. This is a far distance from finding Klingons but we may find microdes or plants. If there out there we are going to find them, eventually

The ancient philosopher Epicurus had the belief that the universe was filled with other many other worlds, and it had no real edge. He argued that we have an earth like moon and some planets. We also have unlimited space around us, which had living things.- Otto

 

Epicurus:

“Next, we must consider that many worlds, and every finite aggregate that bears a strong resemblance to the things we see, have arisen out of the infinity of atoms and space. For all these, whether small or great, have been separated off as special conglomerations of atoms. Furthermore, all things may disperse again—some faster, some slower, some through the action of one set of causes, others through the action of another set. And we must not suppose that all worlds have necessarily one and the same shape. For nobody could prove one way or the other that in one sort of world there would be found the beginnings out of which animals, plants and all the rest of the things we see arise, and that in another sort of world this would have been impossible.”

The following article is in Yahoo News;

An Earth-like alien planet may reside right in our solar system's backyard, just 13 light-years or so away, astronomers announced today (Feb. 6).

That number is just an estimate, though, and not based on an exoplanet discovery.

The researchers used data from NASA's prolific planet-hunting Kepler space telescope, which is staring at more than 150,000 stars simultaneously. Kepler detects planets by measuring the temporary brightness dips caused when the worlds pass in front of, or transit, their stars' faces from the instrument's perspective.

The team pulled out a sample of 3,897 red dwarfs — stars dimmer and smaller than our own sun — and determined that Kepler has identified 95 exoplanet candidates circling them. Three of these candidates are roughly Earth-size and orbit within their stars' "Goldilocks zone," where liquid water (and possibly life as we know it) can exist. ['Alien Earths' Should Orbit Nearby Stars (Video)]

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