Lots of other planets

Scientists now have evidence of about 400 planets outside of the solar system, including 32 new ones:

European astronomers have found 32 new planets outside our solar system, adding evidence to the theory that the universe has many places where life could develop. Scientists using the European Southern Observatory telescope didn't find any planets quite the size of Earth or any that seemed habitable or even unusual.
And this is the tip of the iceberg. Though not yet established, any reasonable extrapolation would suggest that there are many billions of other planets out there, and that at least some of them would be hospitable to life. Which makes it all the more amazing that out of all of those available planets God chose to send his "only begotten Son" toour planet: Earth. Or is that the point that Carl Sagan was opposing in this video?

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Keep NASA independent of the U.S. Military

One of the “trial balloons” of the incoming Obama administration is a proposed consolidation of NASA with US military programs for space. The ostensible reason is “national security,” but insecurity about our military’s capabilities to keep up with Chinese efforts to explore and exploit space are at the core of…

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