Expert: Ed - 3/1/2005

Question
Hello;

What is the current, widely accepted expert opinion on the presence of habitable planets anywhere near our Solar system?

thankyou,

--lyndon

Answer
Lyndon,
What a great question!  

To answer your question briefly is impossible, I'm afraid.  This field is changing incredible quickly.  As you will notice, one of the links I've posted here is only a few weeks old, and it is prompting a serious re-evaluation of the chances of habitable planets existing near Earth.

Before I forget, please look at this link:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3223

This link is about a planet that's only 45 light years away, which is really pretty close:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2909

This link is about the VERY recent discovery that planets orbitting brown dwarfs could be habitable.  This could increase the likelihood of habitable planets existing nearby.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6977

The Kepler mission is a very important study of this topic:
http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/

If you're interested in the topic, you should google "habitable planets" every few months, and watch for NASA websites which come up in your search results.  If you do that, you'll be as well-informed as any astronomer.

Keep Looking Up!
--Ed