Well, now here's an interesting development:

Sun's 'twin' an ideal hunting ground for alien life

Astronomers have found the most Sun-like star yet, and they say it is an ideal place to hunt for alien civilisations.

The star, called HIP 56948, lies a little more than 200 light years from Earth. Its size, mass, temperature, and chemical makeup are all so similar to the Sun's that no measurable differences could be found in high-resolution observations made by the 2.7-metre telescope at the McDonald Observatory in Texas, US.

Apparently, this star is one of about 17,000 that SETI is currently targeting as similar enough to our own sun to warrant interest. This one is the closest match found to date. It's more than 200 light years away, so any civilization living on one of its planets has not yet been treated to I Love Lucy reruns.

One important difference -- this star is about a billion years older than the sun. So any earth-like planet there would have had more time to develop life and civilization than we did -- assuming that we managed to pull it off fairly quickly. It's so hard to estimate with only one data point. On the other hand, assuming we developed slowly or at about average speed, any civilization that was once there could now be long gone.

Maybe the Lifeboat Foundation should join in on the exploration of these 17,000 stars, looking for clues as to what might have brought past civilizations down. Call it SEETI - the Search for Extinct Extraterrestrial Civilizations.