Our New Home Awaits!

I’m always suspicious when they announce the discovery of a new, semi-Earth-like planet mere hours before the opening of a mega space opera movie. Like, okay James Cameron, what CAN’T you manipulate? And yet there it is, announced yesterday: GJ 1214b, a planet a mere 13 parsecs away (just 247 trillion miles! I think that is like maybe a couple weeks of travel time in hypersleep, right you guys?) that is less than three times the size of earth, entirely covered in maybe-water, at a delightful surface temperature of 374°F. We are all going to live there! I can’t wait! With our gills and our pressure pills and our exoskeletons!