Wednesday's announcement of the discovery of seven planets that might sustain life, founding orbiting a dwarf star, should give a boost to interest in space exploration.

Astronomers say the planets, each about the size of our Earth, could be at the right temperature to sustain oceans of water. And they are about 40 light-years away, which sounds far but is close enough to allow study.

Scientists heralded it for its potential to help determine if there is life out there.

It comes on the heels of Sunday's successful launch of a SpaceX rocket, which sent into space a payload bound for the International Space Station. The first stage of the rocket safely returned to the launch pad in Florida, the same Kennedy Space Center pad from which Apollo astronauts bound for the moon left in the 1960s and 1970s. Watching the booster return and touch down on the launch pad may have been even more interesting than the launch.

The SpaceX Dragon is expected to send an unpiloted crew capsule on a test flight later this year, preparing to carry astronauts next year.

NASA, on its website, noted: "The intangible desire to explore and challenge the boundaries of what we know and where we have been has provided benefits to our society for centuries."

And while the space race of the 1960s was rooted in competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, today space exploration helps "foster a peaceful connection with other nations," the agency said.

That earlier space race pushed scientists to solve myriad challenges to sending a human into space, creating many new technologies and inventions. It advanced interest in the sciences.

Today's interest in space has focused far beyond the moon, to the possibility of putting humans on Mars or returning them to the moon, but at the International Space Station research also is looking into matters that could help us on Earth human physiology, plant biology, materials science and physics.

"This is the beginning of a new era in space exploration in which NASA has been challenged to develop systems and capabilities required to explore beyond low-Earth orbit, including destinations such as translunar space, near-Earth asteroids and eventually Mars," the NASA website said.

There are some who say we must leave the Earth in order to understand it.

Study of these seven newly found planets as well as the work taking place on the International Space Station may help us better understand the planet we call home.

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Editorial: Exploration can help us understand this planet - Loveland Reporter-Herald