Pat Benton, age 12, of Chillicothe, 11., for the questions:

Are there other Solar Systems?

Our sun is one of many billions of stars in the Galaxy. Our huge spiral Galaxy is but one of countless other galaxies scattered across the vast oceans of space. It would not be reasonable to suppose that our sun were the only star among all these trillions to have a family of planets. It is much more likely that there are many other Solar Systems besides our own,

However, we cannot prove this. Our telescopes can barely spot little Pluto at the outer edge of our Solar System. If the star nearest our sun had a family of planets like our own, we would have no way of spotting it, Nevertheless, there are most lively other Solar Systems among the billions of stars. It may well be that most of the stars have planet systems with maybe a planet very like our wonderful earth.