Some weeks ago water vapor was found on HD209458b^WP, an extrasolar planet some 150 light years away. Just yesterday Gliese 581 c^{WP, E} was discovered. With a radius only 50% bigger than that of Earth and within the “habitable zone”^WP—”the region surrounding a star where water would be liquid”—of its star, it is the best candidate so far for extraterrestrial life.

The perennial wild card of the discovery of alien life looks ever closer and I’m teetering already—with excitement, with fear, with awe.

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