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Article: Beam me up, Michel: a Swiss professor leads the hunt for extraterrestrial life.
- Article from:
- Swiss News
- Article date:
- October 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Swiss News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Star Trek's Mr. Spock may never have been to Switzerland but he could well have made a friend in Michel Mayor, the Swiss astronomer at the forefront of the search for earth-like planets that could support life outside our solar system.
The 65-year-old scientist at the University of Geneva shot to fame some 12 years ago when he discovered 51 Pegasi B, the first planet outside the solar system (an exoplanet) orbiting a normal star--which means that the star and the planet were created at the same time.
This discovery was groundbreaking because, for the first time ever, the possibility of life on another planet became real ...