theatlantic: How Astronomers Came to Think We are Probably Not Alone To the average American, the news about NASA’s Kepler spacecraft discovering evidence of potentially “billions” of Earth-like planets in “habitable” solar orbits in the universe might feel like a paradigm-shifting moment. If there are billions of Earth-like planets out there, the possibility of life existing somewhere other than Earth suddenly goes from seeming like an odds-against to an odds-on notion. But to NASA’s scientists, that paradigm had shifted long before the headlines hit—indeed, before Kepler even launched. Read more. [Image: NASA]
