NEW EARTHY TYPE PLANET FOUND, LIKE WE'LL EVER GO

This is probably something I've been waiting for most of my life. No, it's not Bush getting impeached (I've only been waiting 6 years for that). No, it's a new planet. Not just any planet, either--it's one that scientists say is just like Earth. The following comes from [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=450467&in_page_id=1965|an April 25, 2007 article] at http://DailyMail.co.uk and it explains more about this new planet:

Above a calm, dark ocean, a huge, bloated red sun rises in the sky - a full ten times the size of our Sun as seen from Earth. Small waves lap at a sandy shore and on the beach, something stirs... This is the scene - or may be the scene - on what is possibly the most extraordinary world to have been discovered by astronomers: the first truly Earth-like planet to have been found outside our Solar System. The discovery was announced today by a team of European astronomers, using a telescope in La Silla in the Chilean Andes. If forced bookies to slash odds on the existence of alien beings. The Earth-like planet that could be covered in oceans and may support life is 20.5 light years away, and has the right temperature to allow liquid water on its surface. This remarkable discovery appears to confirm the suspicions of most astronomers that the universe is swarming with Earth-like worlds. We don't yet know much about this planet, but scientists believe that it may be the best candidate so far for supporting extraterrestrial life. The new planet, which orbits a small, red star called Gliese 581, is about one-and-a-half times the diameter of the Earth.

WAIT--a RED star?? Could this planet be KRYPTON??? ;) We just found [http://thepete.com/real-kryptonite-found/|Kryptonite] the other day, perhaps this planet revolving around a red sun is Superman's home? OK, corny fanboy stuff aside, this is incredible, but sadly my hope for humanity has dwindled so dramatically, I can't imagine us ever seeing this planet first hand, or even via a probe of some kind. We're just too mired in our own pettiness to actually think about expanding any more. We humans have no imagination, our entertainment is about as dumb as it can get and most of us are more scared we won't make it to see tomorrow, let alone a new planet. I bet the trillion dollars the USG spent on tWAT (the War Against Terror) could have gotten us quite a good deal closer to this new planet, if not all the way there. But there's probably no oil or money waiting for us on this new world. Like we'd ever go without some sort of financial incentive...

---

Orignal From: NEW EARTHY TYPE PLANET FOUND, LIKE WE'LL EVER GO