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Astronomy: Beyond the stars

Nature volume 470, pages 24–26 (2011)Cite this article

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Launched in 2009 to seek out worlds beyond the Solar System, the Kepler mission is exceeding expectations. Is it closing in on another Earth?

Sitting for an interview in his office at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CFA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the normally voluble astronomer Dimitar Sasselov looks nervous. Asked for his favourite among the many potential planets discovered by NASA's Kepler planet-finding mission, for which he is a co-investigator, he hesitates, then sidesteps the question entirely. "Personally, I'm already beyond that point. It's not one. It's not a single planet. It's a whole family."

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  1. Eugenie Samuel Reich
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See Editorial p.5

Eugenie Samuel Reich is a reporter for Nature based in Boston.

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Kepler Mission

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Keck Telescope

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Reich, E. Astronomy: Beyond the stars. Nature 470, 24–26 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/470024a

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