Looking for Sagan

In an effort to coax the next great astronomer out of hiding, NASA has created the Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration, an annual stipend of $60,000 per year to a few people willing to look into the possibility of life on extra-solar planets. To date, about 300 planets have been discovered outside our solar system, though most of them are gas or ice giants, as these are the ones whose gravitational forces are most easily detected. However, with new telescope technology and the reported hiring of an interplanetary private investigator known only as Detective Bernie "The Phaser" Flint, more and more potentially Earth-like planets are being found. We'll need a team of very smart people to tell whether these planets may contain life, and if they do, whether we might be able to exile every Hillary supporter for John McCain to their rocky surfaces. That is, of course, barring the possibility that we could just launch them straight into the sun. More details here.