The description about the planets has been a long time. Three centuries have passed since the polymath Sir Christopher Wren predicted that "A time will come     1    men will stretch out their eyes—they should see planets like our Earth."     2    most astronomers’ accounts, that time is just about nigh.
    Most exoplanets (外行星) have been discovered by inferring their     3    from their gravity imparts on their home star. The problem is that this method     4    the discovery of large planets close to their stars. To find places that might     5    life, it is possible to look for planets a little     6    away from their stars. But it isn’t easy.
    Astronomers have     7    solved the problem of looking at objects near to a star’s bright     8    by inventing the coronagraph (日冕观测仪).     9    exoplanet hunting that is not quite good enough. A (an)     10    approach plays with the peaks and troughs of the light waves to do the job more     11    . This week, in Nature, Eugene Serabyn of the Jet     12    Laboratory in California and his colleagues describe a     13    implementation of what is known as an optical vortex coronagraph. This     14    the starlight more effectively, making it easier to see any     15    planets.
    In order for this technique to work, the distortions     16    on the incoming light during its     17    through the Earth’s atmosphere will be removed using a     18    called "wave front correction". The researchers did this using a small part of the giant Hale telescope in California, with which they     19    a star called HR 8799 in the constellation of Pegasus. It was the first time exoplanets had been directly observed and their telescope was in     20    five times smaller than the telescopes used in the past.
    Those new techniques mean that more ways could be employed to finally fulfill Wren’s prediction.