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Article: Do new planets mean life in other worlds?
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- January 29, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Ever since at least the time of the ancient Greek empire, people
have wondered whether there might be other worlds like our own, and
whether those worlds might be inhabited. Now, astronomers have taken
a giant step toward answering those questions.
Last fall, two astronomers from Geneva Observatory in Switzerland
reported that they had discovered a planet orbiting another star
exactly like the sun -- the first time such a planet had ever been
found outside our own solar system. Then, two weeks ago, two
astronomers from San Francisco State University announced that they
had found two more planets, orbiting two other sun-like stars about
35 light years (or 200 trillion miles) away.
All of a ...