Space telescope to hunt planets

The French have launched their planet hunter space telescope (Corot) from Kazakhstan. Their quest to monitor 120,000 stars and to find and document planets orbiting those stars.

Until now the smallest planet we have been able to detect is about 5 times the size of earth. The Corot can detect planets as small as twice our size...not perfect but a move in the right direction. Once we have a space telescope that can detect planets of our size and class I think some big things are going to happen.

It truly is only a matter of time now before we determine there is intelligent life on other planets. Given all the insanity on our blue marble I am looking forward to vacationing on a more sane piece of rock!

It is a multi-national effort but the French have taken the lead on getting this done.

This link takes you to the mission guide for the Corot telescope:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6213150.stm