Space

Via Space.com

There may be an extra-solar planet in the habitable zone of the star 55 Cancri, 41 light-years from Earth. Computer modeling suggests it may be quite likely.

From the article:

"Our models show a habitable planet, a planet with mass, temperature and water content similar to Earth's, could have formed," said Rory Barnes, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona.

Barnes and colleagues ran several simulations of varying scenarios around four stars, each known to have at least two giant planets. They put moon-sized planetary embryos into the systems during their youth and allowed them to evolve for 100 million years."


I really should have considered U of Az when looking at colleges back in the day. Not only do thye have a lot of attractive women down there, they have extra-geeky space science labs. I'd be a perfect fit. Too bad we don't have a near-FTL capability are we could go find out whether or not it's the Klingon homeworld or the Vulcan one. Still really interesting news -- if even 5 % of stars with giant planets have a terrestial size planet, the galaxy could be chock-full of interesting living stuff, even critters and possibly Andorians. May have to go plug in some new Drake Equation numbers if I get a chance today.