CBS News reports:

For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."

The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.

It doesn't take much to get a bunch of astronomers excited. So what if earth-based humans might be able to live on the planet? It would take about twenty years to get there if we could first figure out how to travel at the speed of light. To me this is about the same as a group of scientists breathlessly announcing that a new species of fleas has been discovered. On second thought, no. Knowing about a new brand of fleas is much more likely to affect us than knowing about this new planet.

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