Amazing Hubble ~ Seeking Stars... And Planets!

Just read the interesting finale piece in Daily Galaxy on Cambridge Professor Stephen Hawking asking Will Extraterrestrial Life Be Carbon Based? Answer: Not necessarily. Among the further references is this cool piece on MIT EAPS Professor Sara Seager asking How Would Extraterrestrial Astronomers Study Earth? (citing piece by MIT's David Chandler) referencing the emergent fleet of space telescopes like the recently launched Kepler and the proposed SIM and the TPF. In the meantime, we've made tremendous progress with Hubble, an amazing telescope that's been pushed -- and, of course, repeatedly fixed -- well beyond its original design parameters...