Artist’s impression of the new planet. From NSF.

For the first time, astronomers have found a planet orbiting another star that is approximately Earth-like in both size and temperature. It’s the first planet outside our home Solar System that astronomers think is a serious candidate to harbor life. One astronomer even goes so far as to say “my own personal feeling is that the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent.”

I grew up watching (and falling in love with) Star Trek, so this sort of thing excites me. My imagination is a flutter with dreams of planner descendants looking out over alien terrain and laying out humanity’s first cities on new worlds.

I sincerely hope we get there some day.