Prospecting for Planets

Are we alone in the universe? The question has intrigued earthlings for centuries, yet the answer eludes our grasp. But new clues continue to emerge, as scientists pursue the search for planets beyond our solar system. Since the materials needed for life are plentiful in the universe, do other stars like our sun have planets too?

Several important astronomers suspect they do, a prospectors, they are mounting a quest to discover these new worlds.

Bradford Smith and Richard Terrile, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, are on the leading edge of the search. Their work on the historic Voyager mission, under the guiandance of Project Scientist Edward Stone, continues to yield astonishing new knowledge. With these scientists as our guides, we get a first-hand view of Voyager's fly-by of Neptune, one of the greatest successes of our era.

But these explorers aren't resting on their laurels. They're continuung to push the known boundaries of teh universe. We follow Smith and terrile to a remote observatory in Chile, where a 100 inch relfecting telescope searches the sky. The exciting data gained from these efforts suggests a major discovery of the planets never known before.

The discovery of a new planetary system would certainly be one of teh most important finds in the history of astronomy. PROSPECTING FOR PLANETS shows us how exciting the search can be. As Richard Terrile observes:

"What astronomy brings to a society is enduring. We bring the truth about who we are and where we came from, and wehther we may even have company, out among the stars."

60 Minutes