New Telescopes to Scan Earth-Like Planet for Life

In science news:

But confirming life there, and in other yet-to-be-discovered systems, will require a new generation of space telescopes capable of picking up "signatures" such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone and methane. NASA and the European Space Agency are developing planet finders that will do just that by 2020, assuming funding comes through.

What was that earlier story? Oh, yeah, the Iraq war is headed to $500 billion. Looks like funding for these new telescopes might not happen. I prefer my tax dollars to go to the funding of these new telescopes and not to fund wars of aggression.