Sometimes, I think people just want a distraction. It's something you can get excited about that doesn't have to do with politics. It makes you think there's something larger than ourselves - and that can be very powerful.

We stand on a great threshold in the human history of space exploration. If life is prevalent in our neighborhood of the galaxy, it is within our resources and technological reach to be the first generation in human history to finally cross this threshold, and to learn if there is life of any kind beyond Earth.

Were getting closer and closer to finding a habitable world.

Understanding different planets in their environments is still really important. So if these planets are dead lifeless worlds, it will still be useful for us.

Being a scientist is like being an explorer. You have this immense curiosity, this stubbornness, this resolute will that you will go forward no matter what other people say.

In the old days, people thought that wouldn't be amenable to life. Modern studies with computers have shown that it's okay to be tidally locked. If a planet heats up on one side and not the other, the atmosphere can still circulate, because heat wants to move around.

I don't think discovery of a new planet has a huge meaning for children now, but what it means is the world they're growing up in is very different from children of previous generations. We had Star Trek, Star Wars and Futurama - and we still do - but for children today, they will grow up in a world where other stars were known.