A ‘serious’ scientist in 1992 or 1993 had to admit the possibility that planets were really rare, that most stars might not have planets. We’ve gone from there to here – where most stars have planets. Debra Fischer Read Quote
Once we see stars with three times the metal content of our sun, the planet detection rate goes up to 20 per cent. Debra Fischer Read Quote
It can be very hard to know the history of a particular star, but once in a while, we get lucky and find stars with chemical compositions that likely came from in-falling planets. Debra Fischer Read Quote
There may be hundreds of small seed planets – or planetesimals – which grow in the disk of matter around a star. Debra Fischer Read Quote
Naturally, we think that finding another Earth-like planet is identifying a site that’s at least friendly here for the evolution of life. The primary goal of the Kepler mission is to statistically assess the occurrence of these small terrestrial worlds. Debra Fischer Read Quote
There’s no doubt that the search for planets is motivated by the search for life. Humans are interested in whether or not life evolves on other planets. We’d especially like to find communicating, technological life, and we look around our own solar system, and we see that of all the planets, there’s only one that’s inhabited. Debra Fischer Read Quote
As our sensitivity improves, we are finally seeing planets with longer orbital periods, planetary systems that look more like our solar system. Debra Fischer Read Quote
