Nasa's "Planet Census-Taker" Reaches Orbit; Search For New Earth Begins

Good news! NASA may find a new planet!

So many things we could do with a habitable planet like earth!

I could move there to escape ObamaLand or

We could ship off Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and their Liberal Moonbats on a "Special Envoy" to distant lands or

Hey, Mr. President! Now we know where to put the Gitmo detainees

NASA's planet-hunting spacecraft, Kepler, has blasted off aboard a rocket from Cape Canaveral.

Rocketing into the night sky late Friday, Kepler, the space agency's long-awaited $591 million space telescope, opens a new era in planet detection.

In its four-year mission, planetary scientists expect the spacecraft to discover roughly 1,200 planets, more than quadrupling the number of worlds spotted orbiting nearby stars since 1995.

"I call it our planet census-taker," say NASA's Jon Morse. "Its discoveries may fundamentally alter humanity's view of itself and our place in the universe."

"Census? Who said census," Rahmbo The Ballerina pondered...

...A HA HA HA...Whooo! Those rockets scientists are a riot! I gotta catch my breath!

Says mission chief scientist William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center: "Kepler is designed to find hundreds of Earths. Kepler won't find E.T., but it hopes to find E.T.'s home."

HA HA HA! These guys are slaying me! Oooh, oh, my stomach hurts...

Only about 10% of planets orbiting nearby stars are expected, purely by chance, to orbit at an angle accessible to Kepler's view, says planetary theorist Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Already a dozen jumbo planets have been spotted by transit with telescopes on Earth. Unhindered by clouds and daylight in the depths of space, Kepler should find many more:

"Purely by chance"? $600 Million dollars and the best scientists in the world are relying on "chance"?

The discovery of many Earths "certainly may well mean that life may be common throughout our galaxy," Borucki says.

"On the other hand, if we don't find anything, that may well mean that life is very rare."

Anyone let Obama know of the price tag?