A MISSION to find nearby alien planets to search for signs of life is a step closer to lift-off.
While NASA’s Kepler space telescope is already looking for Earth-sized planets (Â鶹´«Ã½, 7 February 2009, p 8), most of the worlds it finds will be too distant for their spectra to be scanned for oxygen or other hints of life.
The proposed space telescope, called , would use the same method as Kepler and watch for the brief dimming as a planet passes in front of its star. But PLATO would focus on…
