In Brief:

Report: Giant planets may be key to life

(CNN) -- The hunt for distant planets similar to Earth should concentrate on solar systems with planets the size of Jupiter, according to a new astronomical report.

Such jovian giants could fling celestial objects the size of Mars toward their central star, transporting the water necessary for carbon-based life to form on smaller terrestrial worlds, planetary scientist Jonathan Lunine said last week.

Scientific evidence strongly suggests a similar chain of events produced our own solar system, the University of Arizona researcher said.

As the solar system formed, Jupiter's powerful gravity spurred asteroids to clump together into increasingly larger objects, prototypical rocky worlds, he said.

Jupiter then tossed the terrestrial "embyros" into the inner solar system. Those that hit our planet carried the water that now fills Earth's oceans, according to the theory.

The report by Lunine and his colleagues is in the January 30 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Space station science command post opens

(CNN) -- NASA has commissioned the command and control center for scientific research aboard the international space station Alpha, days before the agency sends the station's primary research laboratory into space.

The Destiny module is slated to fly aboard the space shuttle Atlantis on Wednesday. The $1.4 billion facility will serve as the primary research lab for the space station.

Based in Huntsville, Alabama, the center will use the call sign "Huntsville" and link researchers on Earth with their experiments and astronauts in orbit.

The mission control center in Houston, Texas. will continue to control operations for NASA space missions.

The Huntsville operation center opened on Friday. The Destiny lab is scheduled to go aloft aboard the space shuttle Atlantis on Wednesday.

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