Other-worldly pursuit

Science | Is there life beyond our galaxy? Aided by new technology, the search for exoplanets is on | Daniel James Devine

Associated Press

In the basement of the astronomy department at the University of California-Berkeley, a half-dozen researchers sit behind computers three or four nights each month and look for planets beyond our solar system. Using an internet interface and a video link, they remotely control one of the largest telescopes in the world—a 270-ton instrument at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, where two round telescopes sit perched on the summit of Mauna Kea like eight-story snowballs.

As the astronomers analyze the starlight data collected by Keck, they look for repetitious shifts in the wavelengths of individual stars. Those shifts could mean a star is being orbited by its own planet.

"There's no sort of magic time—you know, a eureka moment—when suddenly, 'Ah-hah, it's there!'" says Andrew Howard, a member of the Berkeley team, explaining how a star suspected of hosting a planet must be measured over and over. "It's pretty exciting when you discover that there's a very good candidate: 'Wow! If this thing pans out it'll be the second smallest planet ever discovered!'"