. . . and maybe even a drop to drink on some of them. The first planets discovered around other stars, though, don’t much resemble Earth.
Only a year ago astronomers were wondering when they would ever find planets around other stars. Now planets seem to be popping up everywhere. Last October came the discovery of one around the star 51 Pegasi, 57 light-years from Earth. And at a recent astronomy conference in San Antonio three more stars were reported to have planets. San Francisco State University astronomer Geoff Marcy was in on two of those finds. We are at the gateway of a new era of science, he told the throng and the television cameras in San Antonio. Marcy had reason to be excited: whereas 51 Peg’s planet probably has a climate like a blast furnace, both of Marcy’s planets are far enough from their stars that their surfaces ...
