Despite the utter lack of actual results in mankind's determined search for an alternative to planet Earth - another planet to visit or inhabit, or at least serve as home to other intelligent lifeforms with which we could visit or at least become penpals - nothing has been found so far.

A bevy of "almosts" and "maybes" and "if onlys" - as in, if only its axis were tilted .0007 degrees more to the left and it didn't have an atmosphere consisting of 99 percent carbon monoxide; or, if only its nighttime temperature was a tad more temperate than a molecule-freezing negative-8,000 degrees Fahrenheit"-but no Eureka moment yet.

Astronomers are a dogged bunch, though, and they're discovering new planets all the time, including the very recent discovery, with the help of Hubble telescope, of another blue planet 63 light years away that can be seen eclipsing its own star from Earth.

The exoplanet, called such because it rotates around a star other than our sun (so, extrasolar planet), has the decidedly unsexy name of HD 189733b. It's also catalogued as the slightly foxier V452 Vulpeculae, because of its location in the constellation Vulpecula (the Fox). At first glance, it looks just like Earth, giving rise to the idea that, hey, maybe we've found another place in this vast, empty universe that can support life!

But then we found out that the planet's atmospheric temperature is 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit. Oh, and it rains glass sideways. Carried along by winds that blow more than 4,000 miles per hour.

Never mind.

The team of astronomers who discovered the planet said, "The blue comes not from the reflection of a tropical ocean, as in Earth's case, but a hazy, turbulent atmosphere believed to be laced with silicate particles - the stuff of which glass is made."

The star around which the planet rotates is slightly smaller and cooler than our sun, and is actually part of a binary star system. The other star is a red dwarf. So the planet orbits the larger star, and the larger star and the red dwarf orbit each other. The planet circles its star every 2.2 days (what a short year!) and is the first exoplanet to have been discovered using x-rays.

Astronomers targeted HD 189733A (the parent star of the exoplanet) with the orbiting XMM Newton and Chandra observatories. They watched the star for nearly two solid days, looking for a corresponding drop in X-rays. The amount of X-rays from the star dipped by 6 to 8 percent as the planet passed in front of it, tipping off astronomers that something was going on.

As interesting as this may be overall, it's nothing new. As of July 30, 2013, 926 exoplanets have been confirmed, and an estimated 144 billion Earth-sized exoplanets are located in the Milky Way galaxy alone.

Mankind may have a faraway vacation destination or second home waiting for us yet.

localuniverse@msn.com

SKY CALENDAR

Aug. 6: New moon. This is the best time of the month to observe faint deep-space objects like galaxies and star clusters.

Aug. 11, 12: Perseids meteor shower. The Perseids is one of the best meteor showers to observe, producing up to 60 meteors per hour at its peak. The Perseids are famous for producing a large number of bright meteors. The shower runs annually from July 17 to Aug. 24 as Earth travels through the debris trail left by Comet Swift-Tuttle. The first quarter moon will set shortly after midnight, leaving observers with a dark sky. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Perseus, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

Aug. 21: Full moon. This full moon was known by early Native-American tribes as the Full Sturgeon Moon, because the large sturgeon of the Great Lakes and other major lakes were more easily caught at this time of year.

Aug. 27: Neptune at opposition. The blue giant planet will be at its closest approach to Earth, and its face will be fully illuminated by the sun. This is the best time to view and photograph Neptune, but its extreme distance from Earth means it will only appear as a tiny blue dot in all but the most powerful telescopes.