I’m sorry, but, five hundred light years away or not, this story is just too awesome not to flag up. The journal Science has reported the discovery of an extra-solar planet which is the right size and distance from it’s star to be capable of sustaining life. Of course, there’s no way of knowing for sure, but the fact that it’s in the goldilocks zone is tantalising. You never know: perhaps someone there is looking through their telescope at the blue-green dot we’re on and wondering if there’s intelligent life here.

Hmm…I suppose that is debatable.