NASA has discovered even more planets that resemble Earth, it announced on Thursday.  The Kepler space telescope, which has been responsible for many of the recent planet discoveries, picked up these three planets in addition to thousands of other possible planets.  Scientists are still confirming the other possible planets, but these three have been studied and appear to be similar to Earth though not habitable.

This discovery is part of a greater effort to discover planets that may hold the potential to be habitable.  The Kepler telescope is focused on an area of the Milky Way galaxy that is within the habitable zone, and has already discovered planets thought to be habitable.

Discoveries like these are exciting, because they hint at the possibility of some day being able to sustain life on another planet.  I have mixed feelings about this, however.  Like the government raising taxes when they cannot manage the money they already get, we shouldn’t be able to move into another planet when we haven’t learned how to care for the one we have now.

Space exploration is necessary and good, but while our scientists are working to find us a new home, we should be working to learn proper stewardship of this one, so when we do move on we will be better able to maintain the new planet.

What do you think?  If a habitable planet was discovered today, along with the means to get us there, should we just jump ship and start over?  What happens when our new planet starts falling apart too?