

How data from the Kepler Space Telescope is changing the Drake equation - k4jh
https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/how-data-from-the-kepler-space-telescope-is-changing-the-drake-equation-cea9c7008bc1

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LaneRendell
What a fascinating read. Very cool that "life" may be as close as ten light
years away.

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IndianAstronaut
Life may be much closer than that.

[http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/europa/multimediaimagedetails.cf...](http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/europa/multimediaimagedetails.cfm?Subsite_IM_ID=8421&SiteID=4)

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thret
I hope so. It would be quite a blow if Europa doesn't hold any life but has
all of the conditions we think are necessary for it.

[http://www.astronomywise.com/articles/could-life-survive-
on-...](http://www.astronomywise.com/articles/could-life-survive-on-europa/)

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IndianAstronaut
It will give us information. Right now we have very little idea about
abiogenesis. We don't know if it happens often or rarely. We haven't been able
to do this in labs.

If there is life on Europa, life is probably everywhere in the universe. If
not, it means life will be hard to find. It also means that we are very rare
and unique and need to work hard to preserve the earth and what we have.

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martythemaniak
If you're looking for extra info, NOVA did a documentary on Kepler:
[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/alien-planets-
revealed.ht...](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/alien-planets-
revealed.html)

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pathikrit
Slightly misleading title - its not changing the equation per se but filling
in more confident values.

