Find the PlanetsThe dream of finding worlds beyond our solar
system is now a reality. In 1992, Alex Wolszczan and Dale Frail
announced the landmark discovery of planets orbiting a distant
pulsar. Three years later, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz ended
the long quest to detect a planet around a star like our own
sun. The pace of discovery since then has been astounding --
heralding nearly a dozen new alien worlds. Now you can join the
planet hunt by locating some of the brighter stars with known
planetary systems on a map of the sky. If conditions are right,
you might even spot the actual stars in the night sky. You Can't
See Them -- But They're ThereEven with the most advanced
telescopes, astronomers cannot image the planets beyond our
solar system directly. They see evidence for their existence in
the wobble of stars pulled by their gravity. The movement is so
subtle that it's difficult to detect visually. So, some
astronomers look for periodic shifts in the frequency of a
star's light -- using a technique c