Exoplanets: Worlds Around Other Stars
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter were all known to the ancients. Megan Bedell tells us how starting in the 18th century, astronomers expanded the planetary pantheon, climaxing with the thousands of exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) discovered by the Kepler satellite. She then tells us about the promise of small stars (red dwarfs) for finding planets in the habitable zone (planets that might host life). She concludes by speculating on the prospects for detecting signatures of life on other planets.