Word: solarization
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...science today is offering an elaborately conditioned answer about where extraterrestrial life might possibly be. Two American astronomers have found a planet or two outside our solar system whereon conditions exist (liquid water the temperature of hot tea, for example) that may be hospitable to life...
Even if the new planets are sterile, though, their very existence is a powerful piece of astronomical news. If our solar system is any indication, giant, unpleasant planets are likely to be accompanied by small, friendly ones. Giant planets also tend to be attended by giant moons, small worlds in their own right, and these too could be hospitable to life. Perhaps most important, the discovery of planets around three relatively nearby sunlike stars implies that the Milky Way, 100 billion stars strong, must be bursting with other worlds. Unless the chances are literally 100 billion to one against...
...that astronomers ever stopped looking--at first, within the solar system, for the mysterious Planet X (now considered very unlikely to exist), and then, as powerful instruments like the 200-in. Hale telescope came online, around other stars as well. But picking out a planet against the glare of a star is like trying to spot a 100-watt light bulb next to a 100-billion-watt searchlight. Astronomers find it much easier to look for the subtle influence a planet might have on its parent star...
Marcy and Butler's announcement could change the course of astronomy. "This is extraordinarily important," says astronomer Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. "This is the first glimmering we have that normal solar systems exist beyond our own." It is sure to trigger a rush to find new planets. Indeed, half a dozen teams around the world are already looking. And in an address to the astronomers a few hours after Marcy's talk, NASA administrator Daniel Goldin announced a new program whose goal, he says, will be "not only detecting but taking direct images of Earthlike worlds...
...million observation. The answer is no. Planets aren't rare after all." --San Francisco State University astronomer Dr. Geoffrey W. Marcy after announcing his identification, with Dr. Paul Butler, of two new planets in a far off galaxy which seem to confirm the plebian quality of our own solar system...