Did Japan Space Probe Bring Back Alien Life ???

(Oct. 10) -- Like something out of a sci-fi movie , did alien particles find their way inside a space probe that landed on an asteroid and returned to Earth ?

The question was raised last week by the Japan  Aerospace Exploration Agency , or JAXA , according to  japamese news agencies. Scientists reportedly found small , odd particles inside Japan's  Hayabusa spacecraft , which returned to Earth in June after a seven-year , 3-billion-mile journey that took it to an asteriod and back. Hayabusa left earth  in 2003 , destined to become the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid , one of many small , rocky objects found in space generally between the plantes  Mars and Jupiter .

The illustration above shows Japan's Hayabusa space probe  approaching asteroid Itokawa . After landing on the asteroid  , Hayabusa   returned to Earth  with asteroid  dust particles. After a more than two -year voyage , Hayabusa spent 30 minutes on the surface  of an asteroid -- dubbed Itokawa -- and collected small samples of asteroid dust.

Recent electron microscope analysis detected some particles  that display different characteristics from the dust already picked up by the  spacecraft. hayabusa's mission  was to get enough asteroid samples  to help scientists learn more about the origins of our solar system . NASA researches are helping JAXA in the examination of the spacecraft's power payload.

Whether the asteroid dust contains an unknown extraterrestrial life form  may not be known for some time , as the analysis of the material will continue for several months .

"Although we have not yet analyzed the makeup of the particles , I presonally think the particles include sand removed from the asteroid ," said JAXA scientist Toshifumi Mukai .

My spin :  We are  not along ...there is life out there... tell me what we gonna do when we find them , will they teach us how to save our planet...I sure hope so.

Astronomers Find First Earthlike Planet Outside Our Solar System

Astronomers have found the first rocky, solid planet outside our solar system.They have finally found a planet where there's a firm place to stand - if only it weren't so broiling hot.

As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300 planets outside our solar system. But they all have been gas balls or can't be proven to be solid. Now a team of European astronomers has confirmed the first rocky extrasolar planet.

Scientists have long figured that if life begins on a planet, it needs a solid surface to rest on, so finding one elsewhere is a big deal.
"We basically live on a rock ourselves," said co-discoverer Artie Hatzes, director of the Thuringer observatory in Germany. "It's as close to something like the Earth that we've found so far. It's just a little too close to its sun."

So close that its surface temperature is more than 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 Celsius), too toasty to sustain life. It circles its star in just 20 hours, zipping around at 466,000 mph (750,000 kph). By comparison, Mercury, the planet nearest our sun, completes its solar orbit in 88 days.
"It's hot, they're calling it the lava planet," Hatzes said.

This is a major discovery in the field of trying to find life elsewhere in the universe, said outside expert Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution. It was the buzz of a conference on finding an Earth-like planet outside our solar system, held in Barcelona, Spain, where the discovery was presented Wednesday morning. The find is also being published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The planet is called Corot-7b. It was first discovered earlier this year. European scientists then watched it dozens of times to measure its density to prove that it is rocky like Earth. It's in our general neighbourhood, circling a star in the winter sky about 500 light-years away. Each light-year is about 6 trillion miles (nearly 10 trillion kilometres).
Four planets in our solar system are rocky: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
In addition, the planet is about as close to Earth in size as any other planet found outside our solar system. Its radius is only one-and-a-half times bigger than Earth's and it has a mass about five times the Earth's.
Now that another rocky planet has been found so close to its own star, it gives scientists more confidence that they'll find more Earth-like planets farther away, where the conditions could be more favourable to life, Boss said.
"The evidence is becoming overwhelming that we live in a crowded universe," Boss said.
Now we know that solid planets exist outside our solar system and that the stuff of life (proteins and amino acids) is contained in and delivered by meteors and asteroids, the argument for life elsewhere in the universe is becoming a scientific reality.