Trying to return with some cool news, chapter one

"Oh, my goodness, it knocked our socks off."

That was the reaction of University of Wisconsin astronomer Ed Churchwell to a trio of discoveries made by the Spitzer Space Telescope, an orbital-based infrared NASA telescope launched last summer.

Not only has the telescope shown that protostars (young, developing stars) "are as common as the cicadas in the trees here on the East Coast" but also that the areas around infant stars contain a considerable amount of ice that could produce future oceans on developing planets - and where there is liquid water, there is the possibility of life developing.

To top it off, the device has discovered what is likely the youngest planet ever found, just about 1 million years old. That's about as old compared to the Earth as a 1-day old infant is compared to a 12-year old child.

The object is in the constellation Taurus, 420 light-years away - quite close by astronomy standards. It is believed to be on the inner edge of a planet-forming dusty disk that encircles a 1-million-year-old star.

University of Rochester astronomer Dan Watson said a sharply defined hole in the middle of the disk suggests that a planet created the opening. That gaseous planet would have been formed sometime since the star's formation.

Footnote: Spitzer is the fourth and last of NASA's Great Observatory series of space-based telescopes, which have included optical, x-ray, infrared, and gamma ray-detecting devices. The first of the four is the best known: the Hubble, now 14 years old and in danger of being shut down because of safety concerns for the astronauts who would do the repair work via the space shuttle.

However, on Thursday, a petition signed by 26 present and former astronauts was sent to President Bush in which "we, the real risk-takers," urged that the shuttle mission to Hubble be reinstated.