WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.295 --> 00:00:03.788
But NASA has a big launch planned for Saturday. 

2
00:00:03.836 --> 00:00:11.574
The space agency is sending up a new Mars rover named Curiosity. It will take some eight months to reach the Red Planet. 

3
00:00:11.850 --> 00:00:16.108
And once it's there, Curiosity will search for signs of Martian life.

4
00:00:16.568 --> 00:00:23.011
Well, all of this week, we will be taking a closer look at efforts to find life in outer space.

5
00:00:23.046 --> 00:00:30.616
And John Zarrella joins us from CNN Miami. John, we had the editorial meeting earlier. We were talking about you. 

6
00:00:30.662 --> 00:00:35.922
We said it would be great to have breaking news this week that John Zarrella has discovered life out there in space. 

7
00:00:36.001 --> 00:00:37.741
But tell us what they're up to this week.

8
00:00:39.014 --> 00:00:47.082
Haven't discovered life quite yet, but you know you mentioned that Mars rover and its ability to actually search for signs of life. 

9
00:00:47.324 --> 00:00:54.329
It's the first time ever that a NASA spacecraft, a rover, has gone to Mars with that capability. 

10
00:00:54.412 --> 00:01:01.336
So there's some high expectations that if life ever existed there it... they may be able to pick up on it.

11
00:01:01.336 --> 00:01:04.782
So, given that as a backdrop, we decided... you know what? 

12
00:01:04.851 --> 00:01:13.197
Let's take a look at how the search for life in the universe overall is going. And what we've found is pretty fascinating.

13
00:01:14.508 --> 00:01:20.967
Probes to Mars, telescopes searching for other Earths, listening for life out there.

14
00:01:21.636 --> 00:01:26.913
There's no proof yet, but the body of evidence is growing -- we are not alone.

15
00:01:27.454 --> 00:01:36.015
But one thing that strikes you is that every time we learn something new about the universe, what we learn is that our situation doesn't seem to be all that special. 

16
00:01:36.647 --> 00:01:40.416
And that suggests that life is not all that special, either.

17
00:01:40.789 --> 00:01:50.434
But it is still just that: a guess, based in part on astronomy in overload, findings from telescopes like Hubble, Spitzer, Chandra --

18
00:01:50.836 --> 00:02:00.993
new discoveries at a breathtaking rate, revealing the sheer mind-blowing grandeur of the universe. Consider these heavenly numbers just for a minute. 

19
00:02:01.508 --> 00:02:07.501
Perhaps one trillion -- with a T, that's right, trillion -- galaxies in the universe. 

20
00:02:08.110 --> 00:02:18.125
Stars, you ask? OK, how about 300 sextillion? That's three followed by 23 zeroes.

21
00:02:18.485 --> 00:02:24.563
So where does that leave us with planets, more specifically, planets like our own?

22
00:02:25.037 --> 00:02:30.704
We're learning something that's of fundamental importance to mankind: how frequent are Earths around other stars?

23
00:02:30.991 --> 00:02:40.089
Bill Borucki is the principal investigator for NASA's Kepler telescope. Its mission: find planets similar in size to the Earth, 

24
00:02:40.392 --> 00:02:45.957
orbiting their suns. So far, it has been successful beyond expectations.

25
00:02:46.700 --> 00:02:54.209
Of the 1,200 planet candidates Kepler has found, nearly 70 are Earth sized.

26
00:02:54.516 --> 00:03:04.761
The indication from data that we have in hand is that small planets are common, that the galaxy makes them efficiently. So they're going to be abundant.

27
00:03:05.010 --> 00:03:13.289
The number is large enough so there must be, you know, many billions of such planets in our galaxy. So, that's been a very happy surprise.

28
00:03:13.647 --> 00:03:17.817
How many are orbiting at just the right distance from the sun to support life? 

29
00:03:18.669 --> 00:03:23.996
More than 50 candidates found so far where life might be possible.

30
00:03:24.584 --> 00:03:31.353
What Kepler can't do is detect life. So, for now that will remain just a guess.