Any successful search for extraterrestrial life that is similar to that here on earth requires finding planets outside of our solar system that could support it. There are many thousands of planets within observable distance to the earth, but most of these exo-planets do not have the requisite earth like properties to sustain carbon-based life forms.
Dr. David Latham is leading a team at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics that is searching for and confirming the existence of exo-planets that are similar to earth.
"I like to say we live at a very special time in the history of astronomy," he says. "We are poised to find planets enough like the earth that we could imagine them being comfortable for life as we know it."
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