ExoPlanet Sat may examine Alpha Centauri for planets and SETI pioneers

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the potential habitability of LaCaille 8760, a K-type star about 13 light years from Earth? See article.
g Message - Book alert: Here’s an oldie but goodie worth picking up — “SETI Pioneers: Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” by David W. Swift. This instructive book (by a University of Hawaii sociologist) compiles Q&A interviews with 17 researchers, mostly American, who are involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. While the field, which did not attract attention from scientists until 1959, remains a fledgling discipline, it now draws physicists, astronomers, electrical engineers, chemists and an aerospace physician into its orbit. Scientists featured here discuss current methods used to investigate ETI, and others they hope to develop, but general readers will most likely value the impact of their personalities — modest, open, thoughtful, occasionally waggish — above talk of technicalities.
g Cosmicus - SA recently selected 20 small satellites to fly as auxiliary cargo aboard rockets that are planned to launch in 2011 and 2012. The CubeSats include the ExoPlanetSat, which will aid in the search for Earth-like planets by monitoring a single star. See article.

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