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The Search for Other Worlds |
| Section: NATURAL SCIENCE / AT THE EDGE |
| Author: Seth Shostak |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/1988 |
| Size: 3,321 Words, 19,871 Characters |
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Last summer, at a joint meeting of the Canadian and American Astronomical Societies held in Vancouver, British Columbia, astronomers described new observations that suggest that planets may be a dime a dozen. This result, the product of six years of careful work by three Canadian researchers, caught the fancy of both scientist and laymen. For it is a fact that we still do not know for certain if there are any planets in the Universe other than the nine that circle our own Sun.
The existence of extrasolar planetary systems (that is, planets orbiting other stars) would be an exciting discovery from several points of view. To begin with, it would be an important datum in understanding how stars are born. But beyond the basic astronomical interest, the presence of other planets is a crit...
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...esult, which suggests that at least half of the Sun's stellar cousins are accompanied by planets, contributes heavily to the likelihood that we will find company in the heavens. After all, there are approximately a billion stars like the Sun in our galaxy--opportunity enough for life. And in any case, you can bet your Wellingtons that the radio astronomers are busy listening to Epsilon Eridani!
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