WE MAY actually see a planet around a nearby star within the next six months. A team of British astronomers hope to achieve this feat by focusing their search on white dwarfs—dimly glowing stars at the end of their lives.
Although more than 80 planets outside our Solar System have been discovered, all were detected indirectly, by observing the minuscule effect their gravity has on the motion of their parent star, for instance. Seeing a planet directly is extremely hard because planets are so much fainter than stars. “It’s like trying to see a candle right next to a…
