On Friday night, March 6th, NASA sent a plant hunting telescope named Kepler into space. In the article "Telescope blasts into space to find other Earths" by Marcia Dunn, she states "It's the first mission capable of answering the age-old question: Are other worlds like ours out there?" Kepler was sent out to a faraway Milky Way galaxy to track down other earths. The project could take 3 1/2 years and cost around $600 million dollars. It is a very exciting time for NASA to have a successful launch after a satellite failed and crashed in the Antarctic. While scientists know that other "planets" exist, they are mostly gassy planets. Kepler will be looking for "rocky" planets, more like our earth. While it is a very strong rocket, it will not be looking for people on these planets, that will be another mission. It was a very successful launch, only time will tell if it will be a successful mission.
Could there be another "Earth"? Would the plant have the same make up as our earth, with a core and a mantle? The planet would have to have liquid water on the surface to be habitable, and that is what NASA will be looking for. It is exciting because "if we don't find any, it really means Earth is very rare, we might be the only extant life and, in fact, that will be the end of 'Star Trek.'" It would be fun to be a part of the team that gets to scientifically research the earth, water and air samples from these planets. If there are other "earths" and they are in better condition than ours, we could learn better ways to save our planet. We could possibly stop global warming and find other ways to create energy.
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