SCIENCE WATCH : Are You There?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . . .

The odds are that somewhere in a universe containing stars beyond counting--think here in terms of hundreds of billions--there are planets besides our own and our solar system’s other eight. Also, the odds are that, given the advance of science and human ingenuity, someone would start to find them. For the first time, astronomers think they have done so.

A team led by Alexander Wolszczan of Pennsylvania State University says it has “irrefutable evidence” that at least two planets and maybe a third are orbiting a star in the constellation Virgo, 1,200 light-years (7,000 trillion miles) away. The objects are too distant and too small to be seen by optical telescopes. Their existence is inferred from the radio signals emanating from the pulsar, the rapidly spinning residue of a dead star, around which they orbit. Could there be life on these objects? Almost certainly not, given the inhospitable neighborhood. But now that the Wolszczan team says it has proven our solar system isn’t unique there’s even more reason to assume that on planets elsewhere, yet to be detected, life does exist. That life could conceivably make our own state of evolution seem primitive.

It’s something to ponder, the possibility that some place in this vast and still expanding universe--maybe even in many places--civilizations exist that can boast their own or even better Shakespeares, Mozarts, Einsteins, Roseanne Arnolds. It would be nice to get in touch sometime.

Hello, out there.