[sampo]

> I wish someone would instead come up with a project to really capture the public's attention about space exploration.

The imaging and spectroscopy of exoplanets has proceeded quickly [1] and in a not-too-distant future we may be able to roughly analyze the composition of the atmospheres of exoplanets.

Now, given that microbial life formed on earth pretty much right after the young planet had cooled down, it may not be too far fetched to hope to find a planet with oxygen in its atmosphere, signaling the presence of at least microbial life.

Now that would be something.

[1] http://www.pppl.gov/events/colloquium-adaptive-optics-imagin...