Prof. Ray Jayawardhana: Worlds Beyond: The Diversity of Planets
Povzetek:
Worlds Beyond: The Diversity of Planets
Prof. Ray Jayawardhana, University of Toronto, Kanada
We are living in an extraordinary age of discovery. After millennia of musings and a century of false claims, astronomers have finally found definitive evidence of planets around stars other than the Sun. Twenty years ago, we knew of only one planetary system: our own. Today we have discovered over three hundred "extra-solar" planets. What's more, thanks to a suite of remarkable new instruments, we have peered deep into planetary birth sites, and have taken the first pictures of newborn worlds. Several "super-Earths"
have already been found, and a true Earth twin might be revealed soon. It's still the early days of planet searches but the diversity of worlds uncovered already is truly remarkable - and has challenged our preconceptions many times over.
