http://phys.org/news/2016-08-scientists-unveil-earth-like-planet.html Not confirmed yet, possibly a false report, but if true this is really exciting.
This is why I plan on living a long, long healthy life. I'm 54 - if I can live to be let's say 90 the odds of finding & confirming life outside earth by then are pretty good according to many experts.
It's not the ideal star for a planet, but its neighboring star certainly is. Not that this eliminates the possibility of a life-bearing world at all, but if we're going to go all invansiony on a planet, there's no reason to settle for second best.
For sure, if there is an Earth-like planet around Proxima Centauri it seems unlikely it would host complex life due to the instability of its sun.
No need for wordforge - maybe we will just be able to read each other's minds by then! Actually no, maybe not a good capability - I don't need a surprise visit from the NSA/FBI/KGB/CID/OSI/TSA/ etc.
Suppose this world looks all beer`n`stibbles via observations, but in reality it turns out to be a place like THIS:
What? A place where people faint when they smell Spock's farts? Yeah, I hate when that happens, that's why I never let my wife choose our vacation spots. Hey, Shatner is right there - maybe he can get me a Priceline deal.
Sometimes I have this sinking feeling we showed up to the party before everyone else, and that by the time other life begins to form on other nearby worlds, we'll have long since been dead and reduced to cosmic radiation.
Evacuation....of the ass? I'm pretty sure that would be the case if I knew space critters were on their way and unleashing the hounds!
Even if the universe is teeming with life, we are still one of the first planets to develop it in the grand scheme of the universe. The universe isn't even 15 billion years old and has hundreds of billions to go in which it will be able to support life.
So billions of years from now there might be an even more awesome version of me? I'm sure people less intelligent than myself would have a hard time imagining such a situation. Scientists are already debating whether my greatness will expand forever or contract back in on itself. Of course I know the answer, but enjoy watching them try to figure it out among themselves.
Well, I was just going by the "Blind Idiot God" bit, but I suppose he could be the Blind Idiot God of Assholes.