By William M. Dowd<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

As the rain spattered insistently on the skylights of our abode up here on what I like to call Weathering Heights the other night, I caught an occasional glimpse of lights on planes heading to the airport on the other side of the Hudson River.<\/p>\n

Seeing lights twinkling between the raindrops conjured up visual effects usually reserved for “Star Trek”<\/a> episodes.<\/p>\n

What, I wondered, would it be like to be looking down on this scene from far above the rainclouds and the imagination? Where happy little bluebirds fly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that will be answered by whatever beings, of whatever form, wind up inhabiting the smallest known solar system — the one scientists have just told us they’ve found in its infant stage.<\/p>\n

Observing through both space-<\/a> and ground-based telescopes, they’ve located a brown dwarf star less than one hundredth the mass of our sun surrounded by what appears to be a disk of dust and gas. It’s located 500 light years from Earth, in the constellation Chamaeleon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kevin Luhman of Penn State University, the lead scientist, said the brown dwarf — larger than the typical planet but smaller than a star — is a failed star. In other words, it’s a ball of gas that failed to collect enough mass to start shining. But it does have enough planet-forming properties, perhaps similar to those that helped create our own solar system.<\/p>\n

So, with such cosmic thoughts swirling in my head, I dozed off to the sound of the rain.<\/p>\n

(Posted 07\/13\/07)<\/p>\n

Connect here<\/a> with columnist William M. Dowd’s lineup of blogs for news and information on food, drink and destinations.<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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