The geek walks among us

"Are we alone?" is a question people have pondered for who knows how long. Certainly, at least since we realized that some of those points of light in the night sky are planets, not stars. The first extrasolar (i.e., beyond our solar system) planet around a sun-like star wasn't discovered until the fall of 1995 and when it was, it was a sensation. Now, it's almost routine - by last June well over 100 were known - as astronomers become more adept at finding them and more aware of the conditions under which they might be found. That also means an increasing ability to find ones potentially like our own.

The thing is, the more planets are found, the more common they appear. The more common they are, the more likely some have conditions suitable for life. And the more likely such conditions are to exist elsewhere, the more likely the answer to the question is "No."

It's still a long shot and people who have been looking for extra-terrestrial intelligence have come up empty. (Even if they found something, the distances involved make the chances of having a back-and-forth conversation in our lifetimes vanishingly small.) Still, the very act of looking, the very experience of wondering, winds up adding to our knowledge of the universe. Which is a good thing.

On the other hand, here's one place we definitely aren't going to drop in on any time soon. It's a planet so hot that it's mountains are "frosted" in a rain of vaporized heavy metals.

And by the way, check this out. Don't argue, just do it.