ASTROPHYSICAST

Discovering the first true "alien Earth" is a long-held dream of astronomers — and recent exoplanet discoveries have shown that small, rocky worlds like our own are abundant in the galaxy. Let’s look at some of the closest known analogues to our home planet.

NASA's Kepler Space Telescope was an observatory in space dedicated to finding planets outside our solar system, with a particular focus on finding planets that might resemble Earth.

NASA's Curiosity rover is currently roaming Mars' landscape looking for signs of life and learning about the Red Planet's unique environment. Curiosity has four main science goals: Determine whether life ever arose on Mars. Characterize the climate of Mars. Characterize the geology of Mars. Prepare for human exploration.

Remote sensing is the acquiring of information from a distance. NASA observes Earth and other planetary bodies via remote sensors on satellites and aircraft that detect and record reflected or emitted energy.

Quasars are distant objects powered by black holes a billion times as massive as our sun, Shining so brightly that they eclipse the ancient galaxies that contain them. These powerful dynamos have fascinated astronomers since their discovery half a century ago.