The Pros And Cons Of 51 Pegasi

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Frank Zwicky was an astronomer at Caltech, from 1925 until his death in 1974, who helped to discover some of the weirdest things in the universe. He was denied access to the University’s large 200 inch telescope to perform calculations so instead he used a much smaller eighteen inch telescope, which was barely appropriate for the scientific work he was doing. During his catalog of all known galaxies, he discovered tiny points of star-like light at unfathomable distances, in such a way that should not be possible by any known science at the time. Zwicky had discovered the first quasar, and it was not nor could have been predicted to exist. Astronomers have discovered so many incredible objects that do not seem possible, proving that the universe is stranger than fiction.…show more content…
Shortly after it was discovered, the university of California at Berkeley put out this statement, “Marcy and Butler were the ones who last year confirmed the first discovery of a planet outside our solar system, 51 Pegasi. ‘After the discovery of 51 Peg everyone wondered if it was a freak, a one in a million observation,’ Marcy said. ‘The answer is no. Planets aren't rare after all. These new discoveries are important because they spawn a new subfield of astrophysics, the study of planetary systems,’”(Sanders 2). With the observation and discovery of exoplanets, scientists and astronomers will now have the tools and resources to search for more life. While the planets could have been predicted to exist, they were not totally believed until these astronomers actually found them. These discoveries help to further general knowledge about the early universe and how we came to be, as well as, the search for other life. Without seeing the exoplanets, the field of astronomy would have been radically

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