First of all, I'd like to congrajulate the hard-working astronomers who brought this about. This is a historic and quite amazing scientific discovery-- although perhaps not an unexpected one in light of other recent results in exoplanet science which hinted at it. And to think that less than a century ago the leading hypothesis for the formation of planets was two stars colliding and the debris from that collision giving rise to planets, comets, and asteroids. This old dead hypothesis implied that, given the rarity of stellar collisions, planetary systems would be equally rare. In accordance with the Copernican Principle, planets are NOT rare and are born in the same way (swirling debris disks) throughout the cosmos. Discoveries such as MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb are proof of the genuine, undeniable progress that is being made in terms of understanding our cosmic habitat. Instead of nay-saying and bashing astronomy let's rejoice and continue the search!
Last edited by folkhemmet; 03-June-2008 at 06:06 AM..
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