Year of the Comet
Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS)

PANSTARRS information

Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON)

ISON information

Web Extras

Discovering the path to discovery

How much do astronomers have left to discover? A little statistics suggests a startling answer: lots.
By Robert Burnham
Published: July 25, 2005
When the 19th century was drawing to a close, the world of physics looked as if everything was in the bag. Things were so well wrapped up that new discoveries would come, as one scientist put it, only in the 5th and 6th decimal places of quantities already known.
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