Facts on Fire

Our Sun is orbited by a lovely array of planets and they are widely diverse- big, small, airless, rocky, gaseous, hot, cold, and more. That makes us think that may be forming planets is easy with so many varieties to choose from. Even if making planets is hard, there are so many stars in the sky that it’s hard to believe our sun is the only one. Astronomers have fretted over this for a long time, but trying to find such planets is hard. The biggest problem is any such planets would be faint, far away from being able to see one in a telescope would be like trying to spot a firefly sitting next to a searchlight. Imagine two kids, one big and one small, facing each other. They clasp hands and start to spin around. As they do, the little kid, who weigh less, will make a big circle, and the bigger kid will make a small circle. The same would be true of a star and planet. As the planets orbit the star, it makes a big circle or ellipse. But the planets have gravity and it