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By
Ron
Hipschman
It's been a little over a year since the first announcement
of a planet orbiting a star other than our sun. That first observation,
made by the Swiss team of Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, was quickly confirmed
by Geoff Marcy and Paul Butler at San Francisco State University. About
one year ago I interviewed Geoff Marcy about his stunning observation. You
can hear this
RealAudio
interview
by clicking
here
.
Since then (actually since 1987...), Marcy and Butler have
been busy studying the spectra of 120 sun-like stars to see if they also
have planets. In the past year they have discovered six more planets!
This year I managed to catch not only Geoff, but also Didier
Queloz both in the same place for an Exploratorium exclusive, first-time
ever interview of the two astronomers who started
it all! Click the
icon below to listen to this interview.
G. Marcy and D. Queloz interview
, RealAudio.
How do you look for planets you can't see?
To find a planet that even the most powerful telescope
can't see is quite a challenging task. Since we can't see the planet itself,
we look at something nearby that may be affected by the presence of a planet.
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To continue the story click
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Check out the Bubble Bomb activity and the new online home for
our new book The Science Explorer!
Exploratorium
Visitors Give Their Points of View
The responses are in! Read what our visitors had to say about about genetics
and the Human Genome Project.
LAST MONTH:
"Whirling in the Wind: From Windmills
to Whirligigs", "Depth Spinner" and "Squirming Palm"
downloadable exhibits, "Palace of Fine Arts Historic Footage video
stream"
NOVEMBER 1996 ISSUE.
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