This week has yet again been bombarded with server stuff. BUT – the first migration is complete! This means that our server bruno will be going out of commission soon. Bruno is an old 32-bit machine with some pretty old SCSI drives. RIP, bruno. RIP.

But wait! We need a machine to run a machine to run SERENDIP at Arecibo. Are there any old ones that we can take? What about bruno? Well, bruno is a bit past his prime, so that might not be the best solution. Dan can still take a look at what we’ve got and possibly find a good machine for SERENDIP.

Now it is time to starting thinking about the new server that we’re going to buy! We also need to find space to backup some data, approximately 28 terrabytes. At this point, it’s just about finding the best deal for what we want and need.

On an exciting note: A team of Astronomers led by Steve Vogt of UC Santa Cruz and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution have discovered a new planet: Gliese 581g, in a solar system about 22 light-years away from Earth. The thing that makes this discovery exciting to us is that the planet is that Gliese 581g orbits its star in the “habitable zone,” meaning that liquid water could exist in its atmosphere. Although there appears to be a high chance that this planet could sustain life, from a scientific standpoint, life should not be the default assumption.

You are probably all wondering: Can we look at it? Did we just get a new number one candidate? Well, we can’t actually see Gliese 581g from our telescope at Arecibo, so: no. However, other telescopes around the world are looking at this newly discovered extrasolar planet.

Another piece of exciting news is that on February 1st of next year, all of the data taken by NASA’ s Kepler mission will become public. That means hundreds new candidates to turn SETI loose on!

That’s all for this week, keep up the good work.