Solitary suns like ours are not as rare as we once thought, boosting the likelihood that there are other life-friendly solar systems in the universe.

It is not always easy to tell if a star has a companion, since they are often too close together to distinguish as separate objects with a telescope. But astronomers can look for other clues, such as periodic changes in the star system’s light spectrum caused by the motion of the stars as they orbit one another.

Previous surveys had suggested that most systems containing a star the same mass as our sun have two or more stars orbiting each other, in contrast to our solar system. Now that has been thrown into doubt.

No Comments | In: Eric's Research | tags: alien, aliens, mystery, x-files. | #

The title of the event: “Alien Abduction Experiences: Normal Science or Revolutionary Science?’’

A confab featuring National Enquirer editors? A gathering of “X Files’’ devotees?

Hardly.

It was the subject of a panel discussion yesterday at the annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, and it showcased credentialed scientists discussing the reasons alien abduction — think UFOs — may or may not be a genuine phenomenon.

The speakers — including a university dean and a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist — acknowledged the topic was scarcely standard fare for an august conclave of researchers. But that, they said, was exactly the point. After all, from Galileo to Edison to Einstein, doubt has shadowed some of the world’s deepest thinkers.

“If we’re not open to the possibility that things we regard as preposterous might be true, then we’re going to miss the discoveries,’’ said Dr. Roger K. Pitman, a Harvard psychiatrist.

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