In one of the most disappointing conclusions to a major astronomical discovery, European researchers today revealed that the Earth-like planet discovered through the process of light-demarcation by the European Southern Observatory was actually just the planet Earth.

"I'm not sure how we got so confused", said ESO researcher Michael Mayor. "The accuracy of our telescopes in La Silla is usually unparalleled but on this occasion they just sent back data of our very own globe, even though they were supposed to be zeroing in on habitable zones some 20.5 light years away from here".

Initially, scientists had been stunned by the purported discovery of a planet orbiting its nearest star in the so-called 'habitable zone' - an area in space where stellar conditions are right for producing intelligent life.

But when it was revealed that the telescope had also beamed back a radio transmitted version of the latest Coldplay album and various portions of a Barack Obama speech, suspicions were raised as to the exact whereabouts of the discovered planet.

"At first we were amazed", continued Mayor. "We thought that this Earth-like planet was honing in on our music industry and our political leaders. It wasn't until our equipment beamed back an audio transmission from the Big Brother house that we were hugely disappointed. The chances of such unintelligent lifeforms existing elsewhere are unbelievably slim".

http://www.dailyfortnight.com/news/sci-tech/708-earth-like-planet-actually-just-earth/

"We thought that this Earth-like planet was honing in on our music industry and our political leaders."

Hahaha. Nice. xD

I'm reading a book about this sort of stuff at the moment - Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time'. I recommend it!

^^^
She stole that book from me like two years ago.

And I don't regret it. xD

Teresa... is your boyfriend on bloop?

Si. xD

I've always meant to read that. Perhaps one day I'll stop being lazy and do it, hahaha.

big brother ruins everything. those poor scientists ;D

So.....either it was really just Earth, or things travel much faster through space than everyone thinks. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

i bet they were really creeped out hearing coldplay and obama. haha

Wow... they seriously thought that aliens were watching our TV and listening to our music.... can you say DUUUURRRRR

1. is this real? I'm having a hard time believing it.....

2. 'habitable zone' - an area in space where stellar conditions are right for producing intelligent life. Are we really so presumptuous to think every intelligent lifeform in all of infinitesimal space is carbon-based?

Oh but either way, this article made me lol.

Oh man, It would have been sooooooo cool to have two earths! Maybe everyone that died goes there, wouldn't that be a nice thought? =

Actually, if you believe the "many worlds" theory, you might still be able to hang on to some semblance of belief that they weren't exactly looking at *our* Earth. For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept, it's the belief that there is an alternate plane of existance for every single decision ever made where that decision was made differently. Those worlds in turn create their own when they come to decision points, creating an infinite number of worlds on an infinite number of planes. Though you'd really be stretching it to say our imgaing was just skipping off into another plane of reality.