Astrologers habitually prone to goof-ups now have an excuse for why their predictions have been going haywire: the emergence of newer and newer planets that have caused their calculations to go awry. For the international zoom of astronomers who recently discovered eight new planets, new arrivals are, however, a cause of excitement. Indeed, even as the rest of the world continues to be consumed by a morbid passion for shiny new machines, deadly chemicals, and sinister war tactics, astronomers have been doggedly searching the heavens for more heavenly bodies in the belief that the search will take us closer to a more exalted goal, that of knowing the truth about us and the universe. ”Reality is much bigger than it seems... the part we call the universe is the nearest tip of the iceberg,” one scientist remarked. How true. In the beginning, sceptics could not accept that the Earth not only moves, but alone that it revolves around the Sun, because of an unshaken belief that the Earth was the centre of the universe. We’ve come a long way. Today, scientists have spotted nearly 80 extra-solar planets using sophisticated instruments.
