Kepler Mission – quick note from the Cape by Gibor Basri
Dear Rui – I am here at the Cape, and indeed we are all very excited! This feels like the start of humanity’s first real look at how many Earth’s are probably out there – a question that has been around for a long time. Most of us feel like we will find that there are many, and that will open up a lot of fun speculation about life in the Universe. If we didn’t find any, that would be equally profound. In addition to upsetting everyone who works on planet formation, it would make “Rare Earth” a much stronger idea (one I don’t subscribe to at the moment).
Thanks for the good wishes.
Gibor Basri
Co-Investigator
University of Califórnia-Berkeley
Dept. of Astronomy
