Word: planet
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...TIME's "51 Ways to Save the Planet...
...That was big news if you were hunting for planets but no news at all if you were hunting for life. A planet with enough gravitational oomph to jiggle a star is probably a gas giant like Jupiter, orbiting so close to the fires of its sun that nothing living would have a chance. What biology needs in order to get going is a relatively small, rocky planet orbiting in what's called a star's habitable zone - a place where things get hot but not too hot, cold but not too cold. A place like Earth, in other words...
...unblinking look at Cygnus-Lyra is important because even if Kepler were to detect any telltale fluctuations in stellar light, that wouldn't be proof of a planet. The telescope would have to keep looking and see if the flickering is repeated roughly once a year, or about the time it would take an Earth-like planet to circle around its star and pass in front again. Record three or four such passes, and you can be pretty sure you've got a planet - hence the 3½-year mission...
...good thing about a census like this one is that even a few sightings can tell you a lot. Spot a handful of Earth-like planets among 100,000 stars, then factor up to 70 sextillion, and you've got whole lot of warm, cozy worlds potentially cooking up a whole lot of life. On one of those worlds, someone may even be looking back as our own planet passes in front of the porch light...
...mocked by enemies of • preference of for country of going down in flames rather than political philosophy of being proven erroneous is expressed quite emphatically by • reference by Paul Begala to as "the bloated face and drug-addled voice of the Republican party" • rooting of for planet to explode...