re: #30 jaunte

Aha, you were sucked into the passing gravitational field…

Heh… gravity - it sucks.

I did put up a Pages entry on this pointing out that the pleasant side benefit of this solar system is that it has provided the first Kepler discovery announced of an Earth sized planet (almost, sort of super-earth.)

The star in question (Kepler 9) is slightly cooler than our sun (because it is the same mass but greater diameter), and it has more elements heavier than Helium compared to our sun, thus is probably older:
kepler.nasa.gov

One thing that is kind of strange is how now, when Exoplanetology is really starting to pay off in discoveries, the general public’s reaction is sort of ho-hum. Back when I was a kid the news of observing a planet around another star would have been headline news, with uncle Walter talking it up.