I think it's strange that NASA always looks for water as a sign of potential life. It's totally chauvinistic to think that alien life would have to be composed of the same shit that we are. Why couldn't life evolve with liquid methane for a solvent? No reason I can think of.

Hmm, scientists in Russia also just recently discovered a new mineral with a molecular compound strikingly similar to that of the fictional Kryptonite, the only missing ingredient was fluorine. Considering that this new "Earthlike" planet has about 1.6 the gravitational force of the Earth, any alien life form traveling from their home planet to ours would in fact be .6 stronger and faster if they visited us... It really makes you wonder.

The cool thing is that it changed the odds of life out there to about 1in 100 because astrobiologists now have a much broader range of viable solar systems (red dwarves) from which to focus on. Of course, we'd never be able to actually go and visit any of these places to find out if there are other forms of life within our lifetimes...

Red dwarfs also don't emit a spectrum of light remotely similar to ours. I think it's likely they'd flip the ABORT covers off the buttons for their supermegadeathrays, hit "fire", and find that humans are remarkably resilient to long radio waves.

and all the developers/land-rapers rejoice...

I'm really excited to hear about this!

I'm such a "extraterrestril life nerd".

Well, I was.

20 light years = 157 quadrillion miles if i'm doing it right.

Chauvinistic? WTF?

Anyway, the reason is that we've had plenty of elements on earth, including methane, and guess what- the only compound that seems to have played a major part in evolution is good ol' H20.

It's certainly possible that life could evolve in other ways, but we have absolutely no evidence to support that. So we stick to the notion that water is key. See, this is called "science."

I shall try to be positive about this one. At last, a planet to go to and not have to come back! Surely that's a good thing.

Actually, what happened is that Lockheed Martin, the primary contractor,gave engine firing thrust numbers in English units whereas NASA generally uses metric, hence the confusion.

People always bring up this fact in some sort of attempt to show that NASA is full of bumbling idiots who forgot to multiply. Also, the mission you're referring to, Mars Climate Orbiter, was nearly 10 years ago now. We've had multiple successes since then.

1). What star does this orbit (other than it being a red dwarf)? How 'bout a link to some sorces, instead of just to a clip of a show with really low production values.

2). I would have named it P3X-3789

I know I say this a lot, but, well, it was nice knowing everyone.

I still don't get why anyone would use a system where one measurement of length has 5280 of its component measurement. And have you ever tried to convert any unit dealing with BTUs? Jesus christ what a mess.

From what I hear the sun is named "581" and the planet is "c" and there are 3 planets around that sun
there was a link posted by NinjaTech it was

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6589157.stm

I meant chauvinism in its broader sense, not male chauvinism, the more common usage.

From Websters:

"2 : undue partiality or attachment to a group or place to which one belongs or has belonged"

Just because water was the only solvent used in the evolution of life on earth does not mean that life could not have evolved using other solvents on other planets. To think so is narrow science. There is no a priori reason to believe that water, or carbon, or anything familiar to us is an absolute requirement for life.

I'm familiar with science, thanks. I'm not up on my astrophysics, but I do have a Ph.D. in physiology.