NASA says it could find another Earth-like planet in next 20 years

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WASHINGTON — Are we alone in the universe?

NASA is predicting it could it could find out in the next few decades, according to The Register.

On Tuesday, NASA said that new space telescopes are likely to discover habitable Earth-like worlds — and maybe alien life — in the next 20 years.

“Sometime in the near future, people will be able to point to a star and say, ‘that star has a planet like Earth’,” Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at MIT, said to The Register.

NASA made the prediction at its Washington headquarters while announcing the launch of a surveying satellite set to launch in 2017. The satellite will carry out in-depth investigations of exoplanets.

“Just imagine the moment, when we find potential signatures of life,” Matt Mountain, a top space telescope expert, said to The Register. “Imagine the moment when the world wakes up and the human race realizes that its long loneliness in time and space may be over – the possibility we’re no longer alone in the universe.”

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