Myopic Astronomer's Kaleidoscope

Penn State's Alex Wolszczan, the discoverer in 1992 of the first planets ever found outside our solar system, has discovered with Caltech's Maciej Konacki the smallest planet yet detected, in that same far-away planetary system. Immersed in an extended cloud of ionized gas, the new planet orbits a rapidly spinning neutron star called a pulsar. The discovery, to be announced during a press conference in Aspen, Colorado, on 7 February, yields an astonishingly complete description of the pulsar planetary system and confirms that it is remarkably like a half-size version of our own solar system--even though the star these planets orbit is quite different from our Sun.....
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