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over the last two decades scientists

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have found thousands of planets

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elsewhere in the universe these are

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called exoplanets as we get better and

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better at finding them we need ways to

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narrow down the ones most likely to

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support life

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two NASA rocket teams are working to do

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just that from Australia

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their mission study a special pair of

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stars best seen in the Southern

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Hemisphere and Propel Humanity's search

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for habitable worlds into the future I'm

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miles Hadfield and I'm following these

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rocket teams to Australia to show you

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what it takes to launch a rocket and

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make groundbreaking scientific

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measurements hang on tight we're going

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on an adventure High Above Down Under

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Earth is packed with life

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some environments are more habitable

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than others so what makes an environment

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or a planet a good place for life to

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thrive well one thing is

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water and in fact that's what the search

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for life elsewhere in the universe is

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focused on so far finding planets where

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water can exist in liquid form there's a

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region around every Star that scientists

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call the Goldilocks zone a planet in

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this Zone has the right temperature for

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water to remain liquid too close and the

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water will evaporate away too far and

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it'll freeze the distance has to be just

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right this Zone has been the basis for

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the search for habitable worlds but just

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because a plant is inside the Goldilocks

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zone doesn't mean it can sustain life

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take for example the closest known

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exoplanet to Earth At just 4.2 light

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years away it's located in the

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Goldilocks zone but scientists think the

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star's frequent eruptions might have

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blown away any atmosphere the planet

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might have had in other words the

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Goldilocks zone is just a first guess to

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truly tell whether an exoplanet is

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habitable we need to look at the star

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it's orbiting unfortunately we can't

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just observe a planet and understand it

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at face value we have to understand it

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in the context of what its parent star

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is giving it so scientists have been

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collecting data from different types of

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stars to learn how they affect their

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planets we would like to be able to

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create a menu of star planet

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possibilities that our future missions

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can draw from and prioritize the most

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promising places to find habitable

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environments the next item to be added

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to the menu yellow stars we're looking

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for something around 5 billion years old

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an average sized wait a second don't we

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have one right here so why not use the

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sun we've thought that our sun is the

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prototype for kind of 5 billion year old

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average yellow stars what we've learned

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recently is that our stun is actually

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quite inactive for a 5 billion year old

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yellow star typical Earthling Behavior

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really thinking we're the example for

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the entire universe but it turns out

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yellow stars are found throughout our

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galaxy and they tend to erupt with

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life-altering activity more often than

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our sun does so if we want to understand

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if they can still support life we'll

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need more data than our son can give us

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that's why two rocket teams are looking

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to Alpha Centauri A and B the reason why

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we're targeting Alpha Centauri is that

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it's our nearest solar twin so in many

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many ways it's just like the sun it has

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almost the same mass it's a very similar

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age and it's nearby which is always

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great and with the help of NASA sounding

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Rockets they'll capture light from those

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stars that doesn't make it to the ground

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this range of Highly energetic

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ultraviolet light has never been

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measured before for these Stars even

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small differences in this UV light from

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a star can determine whether a nearby

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planet can support life or not but the

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Alpha Centauri system isn't visible from

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most places in the U.S it's best studied

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from the southern hemisphere

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that's why we're here in Northern

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Australia in the traditional homelands

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of the yongyu people they've been

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observing the Stars here for tens of

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thousands of years I'm here with two

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rocket science teams Sistine and deuce

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and a crew of about 50 NASA Engineers

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rocket Specialists and support staff in

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partnership with equatorial launch

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Australia and the gumach corporation

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they have created an entire rocket range

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from scratch to help the scientists

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achieve their goals in this series

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you're going to meet these teams and

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follow their Quest high above the

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Australian Outback to see what it takes

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to make these first ever measurements

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from our closest Stellar neighbors we

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are going behind the scenes to learn

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more about the science of habitability

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and what goes into launching a rocket

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dodging venomous snakes and crocodiles

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along the way but first we'll take a

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look at how this brand new rocket range

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came to life with the help of the