Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets orbiting stars other than the Sun.
They come in all sizes, at different orbital distances from their stars.
The closest of them are trillions of miles away, and even the largest are just fuzzy patches in the fields of high-powered telescopes.
But if one of these planets is close in size to the Earth and orbits not too close and too far away from its parent star, it could be rocky and warm enough to have oceans and perhaps life.
Astronomers discover these potentially habitable planets, and their eyes get big and wide.
Could one of these distant worlds carry the building blocks of life?
Or even a living, breathing, civilization?
Is the question, " Are we alone in the universe? " about to be answered?
But wait.
Maybe we should ask a different question first.
