Intelligent life out there? The search continues.

NASA's Kepler probe finds five strange new planets, http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_14120023?source=email

Since we seem to be a little short of intelligent life in Pacifica, thought it might be worth going a little further out to the new discovery of planets as the result of a probe named "Kepler" launched in March, 2009, from the article:
 

Planets. It will probably be 2012 or later before the $591 million mission has enough time to find and confirm the discovery of "Earth analogues" — rocky planets about the size and density of Earth, orbiting sun-like stars at about the same distance, supporting a temperature where liquid water could sustain life. ...For an Earth like planet orbiting at a great enough distance from its star to support life, Kepler scientists will need to process about three years of transit data....Kepler's position in space and its ability to monitor more than 150,000 stars continuously with great precision, the spacecraft is the first instrument able to detect the full range of planets — from gas giants like Jupiter to rocky terrestrial planets like the Earth and Mars, and everything in between.

Our sun. ...the probe also had reassuring news Monday for those who worry about the future of the source of all life on Earth — the sun. The spacecraft's observations show that a majority of the roughly 43,000 sun-like, G-class stars that Kepler observed are as stable as or more stable than the sun.That is good news for scientists who hope to find life elsewhere in the galaxy, because it indicates that there are many stars that might support a benign environment long enough for the evolution of complex life. But it also seems to indicate, astronomers said, that our sun is more likely to remain stable into the future.

'I'm going to sleep better tonight," said Indiana University astronomer Caty Pilachowski, "knowing we're in a good, safe place."

Submitted by Kathy Meeh