We’re in the midst of a turning point in scientific history, with many different types of discoveries reported of planets around other stars. It certainly is starting to appear that planets around stars are the rule, not the exception. This is an enormously important development in our understanding of our universe… so a hearty congratulations to the planet hunters!
I hope there are some good articles out there outlining the diverse array of methods being used in these discoveries; there’s a lot of good physics and astrophysics being exploited. Since this isn’t my area of expertise I’m inclined for the moment to leave this to others… especially since I have some very urgent research going on, which is why posts have been sparse since the New Year. (I’ll describe that research later; it’s nothing earth-shaking or exciting, but I feel it is very important for LHC operations in 2012.) If any readers have found an article of this type, please leave a comment.
Meanwhile I’m continuing to develop the Extra Dimensions series of articles, and I’ve now followed up my examples of extra dimensions with a next installment, a first discussion of what scientists would look for in trying to identify that our world actually has one or more extra dimensions . The new article describes one of the key clues that would indicate their presence. But this is far from the end of the story: I owe you more articles, explaining why extra dimensions would generate this clue, outlining how we try to search for this clue experimentally, and mentioning other possible clues that might arise. All in due course…
