However, in order to avoid the usual internet chaos, please stick to this charter when submitting items for the newsletter. In the near future, I would like there to be a FAQ for the design project as well, so that we don't repeat the same questions time and time again. If anyone would like to help with this project, please speak up. Here is the story. As the years progress, there will be more and more studies of nearby star systems.
Most current indications seem to say the planets, on the whole, are fairly common.
Most newborn stars in the Trapezium, for instance, seem to be surrounded by accretion disks. It is likely that as our technology improves, we will eventually obtain direct evidence of planets surrounding nearby stars. Orbiting telescopes and occultation disks could be one way to obtain direct images. Our assumption is that such an observation has been made. Surrounding many nearby star systems, large jovians and small terrestrial planets are detected.