Category: National Geographic magazine subscription
National Geographic subscription holders reading the latest issue have been treated to an interesting feature on Earth's search for another habitable planet.
The publication revealed that more than 370 exoplanets have been confirmed to date, but that technology has constrained further exploration.
However, a number of techniques are being used to detect where planets may be, even when they cannot be seen from a telescope.
Due to the brightness of some of the stars that these worlds orbit around, the magazine likens noticing the planets to the chances of spotting a firefly in a fireworks display.
Despite this, scientists have devised clever methods of detection that could one day reveal a dot in space that hosts life.
The magazine warned, however, that any life found is likely to be very different from that which evolved on Earth.
Even if life on both planets formed at the same precise moment, their differing environmental factors would likely ensure a different path for evolution.
Meanwhile, National Geographic magazine's TV channel has been showing a documentary on the two rover exploratory vehicles that were sent to Mars five years ago.
