8 Worlds Where Life Might Exist

From livescience, 8 worlds where life might exist. And, if you're feeling extra geeky, a link to the SETI @ Home project, which allows you to use unused processing power on your home computer to analyze data in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

The idea of looking for proximate protoplasm is old. In the nineteenth century, Mars, Venus, and even the pulverized, dusty crust of the Moon were all considered possible loci for life. Such optimism soured in the early space age, when probes revealed Mars’ dry, ultraviolet-stung surface and Venus’ autoclave temperatures (the Moon had long been out of play). By the 1980s, many scientists believed that the worlds beyond our own were just inanimate balls of rock, whirling silently about an indifferent Sun.