NASA has given the go-ahead to a project to search for Earth-like planets
beyond the Solar System. The space-borne telescope, called Kepler, will enable
us to search the Galaxy for planets the size of Earth or smaller, and is
scheduled for launch in 2006.
Around 80 planets outside our Solar System have been discovered. Late last
year, the Hubble Space Telescope detected the atmosphere of one of them
(New Scientist, 1 December 2001, p 16).
But techniques used so far are only sensitive enough to find gas giants like Jupiter,
which are unlikely to harbour life.
Kepler should be…
