AAS : One step forward, two steps back?
I’ve said again and again that the most exciting area of observational astronomy at the moment is the search for extrasolar planets. It’s incredible to think that in not much more than a decade we’ve moved from finding the first planet in a solar system other than our own to having several hundred in the catalogues. It’s fitting that the first science talk of the meeting, by James Kasting of Penn State, dealt with exactly that. While he talked about lots of the exciting results, it also proved an excellent reminder of just how hard it is to get science done sometimes. With the honourable exception of Kepler, due for launch next year (which he mentioned) and the French COROT mission which I don’t think he did, most of the planned planet seeking missions are either under review or postponed, both in Europe and the US.
Meanwhile, the brave planet hunters soldier on, looking for the first rocky planets in the habitable zone of their star (or, as I prefer, the Goldilocks zone - not too hot, not too cold). Some thought we’d got there with the discovery of Gliese 581c last year, but new results Kasting talked about show that’s it’s too warm, receiving 30% more light from its parent star than Venus does. Time to keep looking…
Update : More detailed lecture blogging here.
