Wtf? I had noticed this thread got bumped earlier today, didn't bother reading it. Then saw this article, figured it had to have been discussed. Damn, this is one of the most amazing astronomy stories I've ever read. And I'm a hardcore astronomy geek that even tries to get through two of the peer reviewed Astronomy journals, so I don't say that lightly. It's common sense, clearly planets are around nearly every star. But god damn, Alpha Centauri? The connection to the human psyche is indescribable there. Its Alpha f'ing Centauri.
What shocked me is it wasn't Kepler but HARPS, a ground based planetary detection system. We've come a long way.
http://www.space.com/18089-earth-size-alien-planet-alpha-centauri.html
