Scientists ID 'Habitable' Exoplanet

(NEWSER) - An Australian science magazine is soliciting text messages to send to a mysterious planet more than 20 light-years away, Space.com reports. Called "Hello from Earth," the project aims to transmit 160-character missives to Gliese 581d, a so-called "Super Earth" discovered 2 years ago. "Will we get a reply? No one knows," says a Cosmos magazine editor. "But why don't we send a message and find out?" More»

Hello, Gliese 667Cc

(NEWSER) - Researchers poring over old European Southern Observatory data have found a world so potentially similar to Earth that one researcher called it a "Holy Grail" discovery, the Telegraph reports. Gliese 667Cc orbits a red dwarf 22 light years away, and likely has temperatures extremely similar to those on Earth, University of California and University Gottingen astronomers have concluded. "It's right there in the habitable zone," says one astronomer. "It's not on the edge. It is right in there." More»

SETI project collecting data on planets likeliest to harbor life

(NEWSER) - American astronomers are searching for signs of alien life on 86 possible Earth-like planets deemed the likeliest to harbor life. The massive Green Bank radio telescope in rural West Virginia will home in on each of the 86—chosen from 1,235 possible planets located by NASA's Kepler telescope—and collect 24 hours of data from each one, reports the AFP . More»

Budget cuts force institute to shut down search for extraterrestrial life

(NEWSER) - Budget cuts have forced the SETI Institute in California to shut down its famous search for extraterrestrial life, reports the San Jose Mercury News . The institute can no longer afford to operate its Allen Telescope Array, which has been scanning outer space for sign of communication since 2007. As a result, it's been in what the institute calls "hibernation" since April 15. More»

Gliese 581g found only in minute, possibly incorrect measurements

(NEWSER) - US-based researchers may have gotten a tad carried away when they announced the discovery of a new, potentially life-sustaining planet a couple weeks back. Yesterday, a team of Switzerland-based astronomers said their own observations of star Gliese 581g didn’t back up the American team at all. “We do not see any evidence for a fifth planet,” astronomer Francesco Pepe told ScienceNow . More»