What science fiction once told of other worlds far away is now a fact. Astronomers prove another solar system like ours with some planets in the constellation (星座) Andromeda ( 仙女座).
Geoffrey Marcy is a professor of astronomy and physics at San Francisco State University and says, “What we have found now, for the first time ever, is indeed a fully-grown system of planets around the star Upsilon Andromeda. It appears to have three planets, one close in, one at a middle distance, and one farther out.” The star is slightly larger than our sun. The planets are huge, like our Jupiter(木星)
Marcy’s partner in this research, Debra Fischer, describes the solar system, “Here’s the inner planet that goes around every 46 days, the middle planet that goes around every 242 days, and then the outer planet that goes around every three and a half to four years.”
Astronomically, it’s not far away, 44 light years. The sun of that solar system, Upsilon Andromeda, is so near and bright that it can be seen by using no equipment during summer and fall.
For twelve years astronomers searched the skies in the belief that if our sun has planets around it, surely others do, too. Geoffrey Marcy says, “And then starting three and a half years ago, we began finding for the first time planets singly, one planet here around one star.”
“When I look up at the stars now at night, I can imagine easily that every one of them has planets around them,” says Debra Fischer.
It was a tremble in the star that led Marcy to the planets. “The star rocks around due to the gravity of the planet much like a dog owner gets pulled around by a little dog.”
Can they support life? We don’t know, because present technology is not advanced enough to determine what the planets are made of. “That,” Marcy says , “is astronomy’s next challenge.”
1. What’s the relation between Andromeda (A), Upsilon Andromeda system (U) and the mentioned planets (P) ?
2. According to Debra Fischer, in the new solar system, ________.
A. the larger a planet is, the shorter it takes to go around the star.
B. it takes all the planets around three and a half to four years to go around the star
C. the planets move around the star at uneven speeds
D. the farther a planet is from the star, the longer it takes to go around the star
3. What led to Marcy’s discovery of the planets?
A. The tremble of Upsilon Andromeda.     
B. That any planet has gravity.
C. That he believes any star has its planets.  
D. that he found a dog owner was pulled by his dog.
4. We can infer that the scientists are           .
A. to find means to communicate with the living beings on the planets
B. to find means to travel to the planets
C. soon to be able to answer the question of whether there is life on these planets
D. to find out whether the planets can support life.

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