Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star
The note that it&#x27;s an old star makes me worry though. If they&#x27;re older then us, and habitable, were they inhabited?<p>Our current era is a few hundred years of real, directed technological development. A few thousands years either side of that and who knows what we&#x27;d be looking at, but you imagine that - hopefully - the general progression of technology is forward.<p>So if they were inhabited, what happened to them? Are they <i>exactly</i> at our level of development? Earlier? Hopefully. Because later poses some real big questions - does technology top out about where we are now - no FTL travel, no really big radio transmitters or stellar engineering? No probes to nearby star systems? Did they even make it past the nuclear age, or avoid wrecking their climate?<p>One thing&#x27;s for sure - if there&#x27;s really 2 habitable planets, with liquid water, then we&#x27;ve got a hell of a target to point James Webb at when it launches - an infrared spectrum star should mean any plant life is well optimized to towards the redder end of the spectrum - we should see some type of chlorophyll.