re: #32 Shiplord Kirel

I feel privileged that I have lived to see this. What would the great astronomers of the past have given for our equipment and facilities? Yet, luddites across the spectrum begrudge every cent spent on this kind of research.

I hope I live long enough to see detailed images of these newly discovered worlds as well. Progress in the difficult field of optical interferometry makes this possible.
The challenge is enormous though. Distinguishing features as large as, say, an Atlantic size ocean on a planet just 20 light years away is equivalent to resolving Lincoln’s head on a penny as far away as the Moon.

Science is in its golden age right now. We move from triumph to triumph. But the big prize is proof of exo-life. An oxygen-rich atmosphere somewhere else would serve. A better mission to Titan might yield proof; there are tantalizing clues in the chemistry of Titan’s atmosphere, and we know there are methane lakes and methane rain. Liquid methane just might serve as an alternative to liquid water as a solvent that life can use.

There’s also the Mars asteroid evidence; how did those chains of lined-up magnetite crystals come to be? Random processes will break up linear sequences of pole-to-pole magnets. They are the equivalent of a needle balanced on its tip.

So odds are there’s a lot of life out there. Gas giants with extreme elliptical orbits around hot new suns are about the worst candidates available, but the same tech that allows us to resolve this planet will get us to where we can spot oxygen in a planetary atmosphere if it’s there, with any luck. The time frame? Sooner than Mr. Fusion, anyhow.