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How We Could Find Alien Life Soon—and Why We Probably Won’t

Not Seeing Stars: Unlike most exoplanets we’ve seen, these four planets orbiting star HR 8799 have been directly spotted, rather than inferred from data about the star. Researchers accomplished this by blocking out the star’s extremely bright light, as seen in the middle of the image.NASA/JPL

Despite their great distance from Earthbound politics, exoplanets were the topic of a joint hearing on May 9th of the House space and research subcommittees. The recent discovery of a trio of temperate super-Earths was the hearing’s impetus, but most of the discussion was devoted to future prospects—chiefly, how and when scientists might learn whether any exoplanet actually harbors an Earth-like environment

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