Modeling clouds of Earth’s past to better understand alien worlds and mysterious ring of carbon monoxide gas orbits young star

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 - Astronomers have detected a mysterious ring of carbon monoxide gas around a young star. The ring is part of the star's planet-forming disk and it lies at a distance similar to that of the Earth from the Sun. See article.
g Abodes - The pattern of clouds on Earth is largely determined by the arrangement of the continents below. Now, astronomers are modeling the clouds at different periods in Earth’s past to better understand what alien worlds might look like. See article.
g Life - More than half of the 19,232 species newly known to science in 2009, the most recent calendar year of compilation, were insects - 9,738 or 50.6 percent - according to the 2011 State of Observed Species report released Jan. 18 by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University. See article.
g Cosmicus - Last summer, scientists observed a comet as it flew into the Sun. The comet's scorching end provided a new way to estimate the size and mass of these objects. See article.

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