Becoming Alien: Q&A With Conceptual Space Artist Jonathon Keats

By Mike Wall

SAN FRANCISCO — Setting foot on Mars isn't in the cards for most of us, but starting this week you can soak up the Red Planet's essence for just $45.

The Local Air & Space Administration, a shoestring operation run by conceptual artist Jonathon Keats, is selling mineral water infused with bits of Martian meteorite. LASA also hawks bottled moon essence for $30, and you can get some stellar water — made with carbonaceous chondrites containing bits of nanodiamond likely forged in the cores of faraway stars — for $60. [Photo of Martian mineral water.]

LASA began selling this stuff — which Keats bottled after smashing up some space rocks with a hammer — Thursday (Oct. 21), at the opening of its "Exotourism Bureau" here at San Francisco's Modernism art gallery.

For the past several weeks, LASA has also been growing cacti in asteroid soil and potatoes in the various mineral waters, thus spawning beings that are part Earthling, part alien.

LASA isn't Keats' first foray into space-science art. He has also created paintings based on signals picked up by the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico. And in a project called Speculations, he bought and sold property in the extra dimensions of space posited by string-theory physics.

SPACE.com caught up with Keats — who is a columnist at Wired Magazine and an art critic at San Francisco Magazine, as well as a novelist — to chat about space exploration, science and what it means to be alien:

To make LASA's mineral water, you actually got your hands on some space rocks. It's not a gag — you went out and bought some of these things off the Internet, right?

Yes. And that is essential in all of the work that I do. What I do is completely absurd, perhaps, looked at from the outside. Yet for that absurdity to have any depth to it, I feel that I need to take it absolutely seriously.

So when I was dealing in real estate, I had contracts that were perfectly valid in a court of law, provided that the court of law was willing to admit to the existence of extra dimensions of space. In this case I went on the Internet, and I've been purchasing from many of the same dealers who supply the world's laboratories.

Your real estate project — people actually bought some of those extra-dimensional lots?

Yes. I did better, I think, than Coldwell or any of the big firms if you look at volume. If you look at numbers, I didn't do so well. My most expensive lot was around $15 or so. But I was offering some real estate as low as 9 cents for a unit. I sold around 65 or 70 units in the first evening of sales, and there have been more sales since then, though my pressure tactics only lasted through that initial evening.

What do you hope people who buy LASA's mineral water get out of the experience?

I hope that they are able to explore these alien realms from within. I don't know what that will entail for any given person. [Moon's Water Comes in Three Flavors]

For me, what is most interesting is not so much what is out there but what the process of incorporating those alien minerals into my system means for me as a person. The fact that this does make me alien by degree — little by little, the more that I drink, the more alien I become.

For me, the optimal way in which to experience life is to have the advantage of being a little bit of an outsider, whatever it is I encounter, whatever it is that I do, because that gives me a sort of perspective on it.

The bodies in our solar system are exchanging material all the time — there are rocks from Mars on Earth, rocks from the moon on Earth. Is part of what you're trying to say that we're all interconnected in the solar system?

I like that idea you're bringing up. I think also that interconnectedness throughout time is very interesting. So for example, in the case of the stellar mineral water — I can't really offer you an excursion to our sun. It would be too hot. The water would boil off, and there would be other problems too, which you can imagine.

But I can offer you an excursion to other stars that once were. That nanodiamond which you are absorbing as you're drinking this water comes from stars that predate us and that are the materials from which we come. So there's almost a deja vu that takes place. It's almost an encounter with our ancestors.

You've actually tasted all three mineral waters. Knowing what's in them, do you manufacture a taste in your head, or do they just taste like water?

I think it's inevitable because of the nature of the material, that it does seem to have something strange about it. I can't place a flavor. It isn't like it tastes like chicken — well, I don't think so.

I guess that the carbonaceous chondrite, if you were to eat enough of it, might taste like burned chicken. I can't help but believe that each one of them has a distinct flavor to it. [Astronauts Drink Recycled Urine...and Celebrate]

But I suspect that that is as much an act of fraudulence on my own part toward myself as the sort of low-impact fraudulence undertaken every day by mineral water companies such as Evian and others toward their customer base might happen to be. I just don't know that Evian tastes any different than Calistoga, or that Calistoga is any different than Fuji. Fuji, or Fiji I think it is. I don't even know my competition, my terrestrial competition.

Have you gotten any interest from folks wanting to buy this stuff already?

I've gotten some curiosity. It's also been interesting to find how many people have asked whether I think anyone will actually drink this stuff, and when I say that I have, have looked at me as if I really am an alien, and I mean a Martian glowing green.

It seems fascinating to me that probably every single one of us as a child ate quite a lot of dirt. And probably most of us still do, at least a little bit. Yet dirt from Mars or from the moon is somehow seen to be toxic, dangerous, and I wonder why that is. I suspect that it is in some way related to the xenophobia that comes through in terms of our treatment of illegal aliens, in terms of the sort of war that you see between people of different religions in the Middle East, for example.

I hope that in some non-literal, non-polemical way, this project might also in a sense reflect on xenophobia of all different kinds, and by encouraging others to become alien in some respect that it might help to encourage a certain empathy for people who are alien in legal terms, or in terms of having different beliefs.

Did you ever think about offering customers a full alien meal, with the potatoes and the water?

That's a good idea. But maybe in that case it would make more sense to use the water as a base for wine or something like that.

I was going to ask you about that. Did you consider booze? You could call it "Moonshine." It would probably sell.

You know, I think that you should probably pursue that. You will put us out of business, and that will allow me to start working on some new projects.

It seems like you keep coming back to space science and astronomy. Is that because you want to divine our place in the universe, or are you just interested in this stuff?

The sciences continually recur in my work. Religion is another theme that comes up again and again. So too is commerce. Those are some of the fundamentals of our world. So I continually come back to science and continually poke and prod, because I am interested in what our assumptions are about the sciences.

Why space? Certainly, I am interested in it. That's just a matter of my personality. But the second reason, very briefly, is that space is out there. And because my art is almost always about getting us outside of ourselves, space is a very convenient place to go.

http://www.space.com/entertainment/keats-space-exploration-art-q-a-101022.html

Astronomers Worldwide Forge New Rules for ET Engagement

Lee Speigel Contributor

AOL News

(Oct. 8) -- Is alien disclosure just around the corner?
I can't say for sure, but lately there's been a lot of news that, if looked at collectively, could be interpreted as pointing in that direction.
It seems as if everyone from the Vatican to the military to scientists conducting the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, are getting on the ET bandwagon.

Robyn Beck, AFP / Getty Images

Dusk falls over the Very Large Array, one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories, on the Plains of San Agustin, 50 miles west of Socorro, N.M.
Just last week, in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, the International Academy of Astronautics' SETI Permanent Study group created new guidelines for how earthlings should best handle official contact with extraterrestrials.
"The guidelines were and still are: Do good science and don't cry wolf. Make sure that what you're about to announce is, in fact, what you think it is," Jill Tarter, director of the SETI Institute's Center for SETI Research in California, told AOL News.
"In the case of the first protocol, it was: Don't respond until there's some consensus, a) that we should respond; and b) when we respond, who's going to speak for Earth and what are they going to say?
"We originally took that to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and it's duly filed away. When we presented that, we suggested that the U.N. might want to be proactive, and to think about the fact that this might happen."
For decades, SETI scientists, using radio and optical telescopes, have searched the heavens for proof that we're not alone in the universe. In the new SETI guidelines, the protocol for confirmation of an alien intelligence is clearly laid out:
"If the verification process confirms -- by the consensus of the other investigators involved and to a degree of certainty judged by the discoverers to be credible -- that a signal or other evidence is due to extraterrestrial intelligence, the discoverer shall report this conclusion in a full and complete, open manner to the public, the scientific community and the secretary-general of the United Nations."
Last November, Tarter was a participant at a Vatican-sponsored astrobiology conference -- a gathering of international scientists and religious leaders who considered the idea that life may exist elsewhere in the cosmos. In fact, a Jesuit astronomer, Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, had previously suggested that the idea of "brother extraterrestrials" would not conflict with Catholic doctrine.

Seth Shostak, SETI Institute
SETI astronomer Jill Tarter, who has devoted her career to hunting for signs of sentient beings in the cosmos.
"It was all about the question of life in the universe, and how we might find it, or life of a different kind -- weird life -- on this planet," said Tarter.
Tarter, whose work formed the basis of the character portrayed by Jodie Foster in the 1997 movie "Contact," suggests religious groups would be fine with the idea that Earth is not the only inhabited planet around.
"People say, 'Oh, my God, it's the end of religion if you detect a signal,' and I think organized religion is a lot more flexible than that," she said. "It's been around for millennia. Our view of the universe has changed hugely, so I don't think that this would be the death knell or the singularity in organized religion."

It's also hard to escape all the recent UFO items in the news.
Two months ago, the National Archives of England released UFO-related documents, including some that revealed how former Prime Minister Winston Churchill reportedly covered up wartime accounts of UFO sightings because he feared they might create a panic among the population.

Later this month, we'll find out how the European Union will finally respond to Italian Northern League leader Mario Borghezio's request, made in June, that EU member governments disclose their UFO files and establish a European UFO commission.

Ten days ago, at the National Press Club in Washington, several former Air Force officers came together, offering testimony of their experiences with UFOs at nuclear weapons sites, both in the U.S. and abroad, going back several decades.

An upsurge of UFO reports in China this year has prompted a planetary astronomer at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to speculate that "contact between humans and extraterrestrial life will, hopefully, come this century."

Last week's announcement of the discovery of an Earth-like planet in our galactic neighborhood created a stir in the scientific community as well as the media.

While Tarter is engaged in the search for radio signals from possible distant civilizations, she acknowledges the significance of finding a planet that may harbor only primitive life forms.

"The universe is appearing to be more bio-friendly as we get closer to having a real Earth analog," she said. "It's really nice to see something that's about Earth-sized in an orbit that might, in fact, allow there to be a temperate and water-filled area on the planet."
And this week, British researchers hope to find alien life forms closer to home, in Earth's upper atmosphere, a prospect Tarter finds intriguing.
"There could be, in fact, another shadow biosphere on Earth where there's a different form of metabolism that might not use DNA, or might use different bio-solvents -- it's actually not completely out of the question."
Tarter suggests that life might even be found in non-Earthlike habitable zones, in places where "extremophile" organisms may thrive -- life forms that may actually require hazardous conditions.

Sponsored Links "As we've looked at extremophiles and looked at our own solar system better, we appreciate that," she said. "There might be life under the ice of [Jupiter's moon] Europa, and that could happen in other planetary systems. The nice thing is that we're getting close enough to it being science -- that we can actually go after the details and not just have to tell a story. It's really exciting."
So, does all of this -- SETI, Vatican, UFOs, high-atmosphere microbes -- or any of this signal a coming extraterrestrial disclosure?
Maybe I'm just tying a string of alien beads together that are leading nowhere, but I can't help wondering

Water Ice Common on Asteroids, Discovery Suggests

Scientists have discovered water ice on an asteroid for the second time, suggesting that it is more common on space rocks in our solar system than previously thought.

Two research teams have found evidence of water ice and organic molecules on the asteroid 65 Cybele, just six months after discovering the same stuff on a different space rock — asteroid 24 Themis — for the first time. The results suggest that asteroids may have delivered much of these essential materials for life to the early Earth, the researchers said.

"This discovery suggests that this region of our solar system contains more water ice than anticipated," said Humberto Campins, of the University of Central Florida, in a statement. "And it supports the theory that asteroids may have hit Earth and brought our planet its water and the building blocks for life to form and evolve here."

A very thin layer

The researchers analyzed the sunlight bouncing off 65 Cybele, which has a diameter of about 180 miles (290 kilometers) and circles the sun in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

The teams used two different NASA instruments: the Infrared Telescope Facility atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The telescopes picked up the telltale signatures of water ice and complex organic solids on the space rock's surface, researchers said.

They didn't find great sheets of ice — the asteroid's ice layer is probably less than one micron thick, Campins told reporters today (Oct. 8) during the 42nd annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences in Pasadena, Calif.

The ice layer is probably also very unstable, Campins said, so it has probably only coated the space rock for a few thousand years or so. The research team isn't sure where it came from, but one possibility is the asteroid's subsurface.

If the ice did indeed migrate up from 65 Cybele's interior, the water could be primordial, Campins said — leftovers from the early stages of our solar system's formation. But that's just speculation at this point.

"We have a detection, and we're starting to figure out what the physical characteristics and abundance of this ice are," Campins said.
Changing our view of asteroids

The discovery of water ice on 24 Themis — announced in April 2010 by the same two research teams — changed many scientists' perspectives on asteroids. [5 Reasons to Care About Asteroids]

Asteroid 24 Themis resides in the same region of the asteroid belt as 65 Cybele. Many scientists had thought asteroids in this part of the belt were too close to the sun to carry water ice.

These asteroids may have been ice-covered long ago during the solar system's youth, the thinking went, but their surface water should have evaporated by now.

Finding water ice on such space rocks now, 4.6 billion years after the solar system's birth, suggests that asteroids may have delivered much of the water that fills Earth's oceans — and perhaps some of the complex organic molecules that served as the building blocks of life here, scientists have said.

Filling the oceans?

Earth has experienced a violent history, having been bombarded by space rocks throughout much of its life. In particular, a large rock is thought to have crashed into Earth some 4.5 billion years ago, knocking off a giant chunk of material that eventually became our moon.

At that point, the collision would have heated things up so much that any water on Earth would have been vaporized. So, how did the oceans form?

Comets hold a great deal of water ice, but they are not ideal candidates for filling up Earth's early oceans. Comet water tends to be of a different nature — its atoms are in a different configuration — than most of the water on Earth, scientists have said.

The new results strengthen the case for asteroids as water-bearers for the early Earth. In the solar system's early days, asteroids likely slammed into Earth far more frequently than they do today, researchers have said. If many asteroids were even just a little icy, the Earth could have received quite a drenching, they added.

The discovery may also be a boon to NASA's new space exploration program, which is aiming to send astronauts to visit a near-Earth asteroid by 2025.

Finding E.T. May Become Harder If Aliens Go Digital

By Zoë Macintosh

SPACE.com Staff

Scientists may have an extra challenge when it comes to detecting alien civilizations: a time limit.

A new study suggests that intelligent aliens, if their technological progression is similar to that of humanity's, are likely to have moved away from noisy radio transmissions to harder-to-hear digital signals within a 100-year time frame. That offers Earth just a narrow window in which to pick up any signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.

"Based on the results that we looked at, if we assume that the civilizations are humanlike with similar technological progress to us, we calculate the probability of making contact is roughly one in 10 million," the study's lead author, Duncan Forgan, told SPACE.com.

The time it takes a planet to go "radio quiet" dramatically restricts the types of signal it sends into space and our chances for eavesdropping on them, said Forgan, a postgraduate researcher at the University of Edinborough in Scotland. [Poll - Is Earth Ready to Meet an Alien Civilization?]

Forgan and his team applied their technology-development time scale to a simulation of the galaxy, based on the assumption that the pace of an alien civilization's technological progress would be similar to that on Earth. Based on this simulation, the researchers determined the 1-in-10 million odds of humans accidentally stumbling across a transmission from aliens.

The researchers, whose study will appear in an upcoming edition of the International Journal of Astrobiology, focused their work on the expected eavesdropping capabilities of the Square-Kilometer Telescope, a radio telescope slated to be completed by 2023.

A radio century

In the early 20th century, the only options for communicating quickly over long distances were by telegram or wireless radio. As radio technology improved, so did the quality of its broadcasts and receivers.

"In the past, the detector would only take up a chunk of that energy, and the rest would go out into the universe," Forgan said. "Now, instead of firing off a huge amount of energy and picking up a trace, we send out a very small amount and soak up almost all of it, so the amount of lost energy is much lower."

Traditional radio communication is being replaced by innovations in the use of light to send digital signals through fiber-optic cable and the emergence of the Internet. The transition from analog to digital broadcasts, which in the last few decades recoded radio signals into formats that preserved their clarity over long distances, have further cut down on Earth's signal leakage into the universe.

The Drake equation

To determine the Square-Kilometer Telescope's chances of picking up a radio broadcast from intelligent extraterrestrials, scientists used simulations similar in structure to that of the famous Drake Equation.

While that formula (created by astronomer Frank Drake) spat out a single number for the amount of contactable civilizations by stringing together seven factors deemed critical to the formation of intelligent life, the program used probabilities to create a spatial distribution of a galaxy's stars and planets.

"What we're doing is approaching it from a different angle," Forgan said. "Instead of squeezing huge amounts of astronomical data into several numbers, we're going to use as much of it as possible."

The scientists attempted to create a statistically accurate picture of our galaxy by using data on typical star masses, locations, number and masses of planets, and their habitability. According to their simulations, civilizations on par with the technological development of humans could be separated by distances of at least 1,000 light-years or so.

One type of simulation examined a scenario in which all intelligent alien life became radio quiet — a realistic scenario, Forgan said, because signal leakage lessens steadily as technology improves. Another type looked at civilizations that Earth could see during the planet's entire lifetime.

"When you do that, the possibilities improve immensely; it goes from being a remote impossibility to being much, much higher," Forgan said.

The concept of radio quiet doesn't affect the change in distance, but it affects the time scale during which you can hear the signal, he added.

"If your target is broadcasting for 1,000 years, then this gives you more time to find it before the signal switches off than if they were only broadcasting for 100 years," Forgan said. "The 'radio quiet' concept reduces the time scale to a very low number, which means your chances of hearing it are very small."

What this means is that searching only for radio leakages could cause scientists to miss "quite a lot" of civilizations, Forgan said.

"These results aren't as new as you may think, but they are exciting because it shows that even the most powerful radio telescopes in the world will still struggle to find E.T. unless we design the search carefully," Forgan said.

Previous studies on the observation limits of the Square-Kilometer Telescope showed it could detect extraterrestrial signals from up to about 300 light-years away within two months, assuming that the other civilization's broadcasts were at least as strong as the military radar used by Earth's governments.

Will we ever detect life?

Scientists continue to use radio waves to search for life because of the scarcity of natural sources of radio waves in the universe, and the fact that they are less easily lost by absorption than other forms of electromagnetic radiation, which includes light.

Even the smallest snippet from an alien broadcast could count as evidence of an extraterrestrial intelligence.

"An artificial signal will have patterns in it that usually do not appear in nature, even if distorted," Forgan said.

Alternate search targets include technologies that possess a distinct radiation signature, such as the exotic matter created inside a particle accelerator, and technologies that have not been invented yet on Earth, such as communication by lasers or neutrinos.

Neutrinos are very light particles that constantly stream through our bodies and the Earth. (If anyone found a way to capture neutrino emissions in a device, Forgan said, the technology surely would replace Megahertz light waves for cell phones, because the signals would never be obstructed by a building.)

But doesn't mean humanity should give up on radio: Rather than look at the steady drip of leakage that results from our televisions, radio or radar, we could look for alien civilizations that are making a general effort to communicate with us, Forgan said.

That approach, he admitted, is likely to mean a long wait for any cosmic callbacks.

"If we send a signal right now, it will take four years to reach the nearest star," Forgan said. "It's much more likely we will receive a return message in hundreds or thousands of years.

"On the other hand, other civilizations may have a different outlook. They may be desperate to make communication with other civilizations."

A Million Questions About Habitable Planet Gliese 581g (Okay, 12)

By Jeremy Hsu

A newfound Earth-sized planet discovered in the habitable zone of a nearby star looks very promising for the possibility of extraterrestrial life, but many unknowns remain.

The planet, Gliese 581g, is one of two new worlds discovered orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which now has a family of planets that totals six. [Tour the six Gliese 581 planets.]
Here is SPACE.com's look at what scientists know so far about the intriguing world, as well as a few questions that don't quite have answers yet. Consider it a new entry into Earth's own hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy:

How do I say the planet's name?
Gliese 581g may look like it should rhyme with "Grease," but it is actually pronounced as two-syllables as (Glee-zuh). The name comes from the German astronomer Wilhelm Gliese, who catalogued the planet's parent star Gleise 581 as part of a star survey first published in 1957.
Where is Gliese 581g?
The planet Gliese 581g orbits the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which sits 20 light-years from Earth in the constellation Libra. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km).
How far is it from the parent star?
Early estimates suggest Gliese 581g is 0.15 astronomical units from its star. One astronomical unit is the average distance between the Earth and sun, which is approximately 93 million miles (150 million km). That distance means the planet is close enough to its star so that it can complete an orbit in a little less than 37 days.
One of its sibling planets was closer to the hot edge of the habitable zone around the star Gliese 581, and one was farther out the colder edge of the habitable zone. Gliese 581g is located just right between the two. [Graphic: Gliese 581 solar system orbits]

What is a habitable zone?

Think of a star's habitable zone as the swath of space surrounding a star where conditions for life as we know it are possible. Closer in, a planet roasts. Farther out, it freezes.

Planets within that habitable zone, also known as the Goldilocks zone, have a range of surface temperatures that allow for readily available liquid water and other conditions that may support the rise of life. This cosmic sweet spot can vary, because it depends upon the type of star and the point in time for any given star's lifespan.

For instance, our sun's current habitable zone is farther out than that of the star Gliese 581, a red dwarf about 50 times dimmer than our sun.

The cooler red dwarf allows the Gliese 581 planets to orbit much closer and still remain in the habitable zone.

A planet within the habitable zone does not have a guaranteed chance of originating life, because biology also depends upon the planet's size and a host of conditions, including chemical makeup. But what little researchers know about Gliese 581g makes it a highly promising candidate.

How big is Gliese 581g in relation to Earth?

The planet is lumped into the "nearly Earth-sized" category. It is between three and four times the mass of our Earth — bigger, but small enough to be rocky rather than gaseous. Its radius is anywhere between 1.3 and two times the size of Earth.

How much would I weigh on Gliese 581g?

An Earth-sized planet with three times the mass of our planet would pull down on your body with three times the force of Earth's standard gravity. That means if you weighed 120 pounds on Earth, you would weigh about 120 x 3 pounds on an Earth-sized planet with three times the mass, or 360 pounds.

But Gliese 581g also has a somewhat larger radius, so that also factors into the equation. A 120 pound person would weigh about 213 pounds on Gliese 581g at the lower end of the size and mass estimates. This all remains theoretical until astronomers can pin down the actual size and mass.

What's it like on the surface?

There is no solid evidence at the moment that suggests what surface conditions might be like, or even if liquid water and an atmosphere are actually present.

What researchers know is that the planet exists at the right distance from its star to have liquid water. It's also at the right distance to have an atmosphere which can protect that water, if exists on the surface.

But one of the planet's discoverers, astronomer Steven Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz, pointed out that "it's pretty hard to imagine that water wouldn't be there."

He likened it to the examples of the Earth, its moon, Mars, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. He also noted that the Orion Nebula is making enough water every 24 seconds to fill all the oceans of the Earth.

Researchers also know that the planet is tidally locked to its star. That means one side experiences eternal daylight, and the other side experiences unending darkness. Such a locked configuration helps to stabilize the planet's surface climate, Vogt said.

3-D global circulation models have shown that the temperature differences on the day and night sides of the planet would not be enough for water to either freeze or boil off. They also suggest that the atmospheric circulation and wind patterns would be relatively benign.

Does it have moons?

There's one called Pandora ... just kidding! There's no info on any moons around Gliese 581g, or around any other planets in its solar system yet. But astronomers have long assumed that alien planets could have moons, and that some of the moons might harbor life.

How long would it take to get there?

This question depends upon how fast you travel. Given our current lack of Star Trek's warp drives, any interstellar expedition would have to travel far slower than the speed of light.

A spaceship traveling at a one-tenth of the speed of light would reach Gliese 581g within about 220 years, Vogt said. That would allow the spaceship to begin getting close-up pictures and a sense of the planet's atmosphere.

That time scale is not promising for existing human lifespans, but robotic explorers could more easily take up the challenge. However, the fastest spaceships built so far don't come anywhere near even that one-tenth light-speed mark.

What kind of life would we expect to find?

Any discussion about alien life on Gliese 581g is purely speculative at this point, according to co-discoverer Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in Washington, D.C.

Butler took a more cautionary approach as opposed to Vogt, who said his gut feeling told him "the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent."

Still, even Butler noted that anywhere you find water on Earth, you find life. He suggested that a similar condition should hold for almost anywhere in the universe, including Gliese 581g if it does hold water.

Why doesn't the planet have a real name?

The planet is called Gliese 581g because its star, Gliese 581, is designated "a," and the four previously discovered planets in the system are called b, c, d and e.

But Vogt said that he has unofficially begun calling the planet "Zarmina's World," in honor of his wife.

What would aliens living on Gliese 581 see if they looked toward our sun?

You remember that we don't have evidence of alien life on the planet yet, right?

But assuming they exist, aliens could spot our own sun as star in their sky without requiring any telescopes or binoculars.

If the alien astronomers had our current level of technology, they would be also able to easily detect Neptune, and possibly Jupiter and Saturn.