Expert: Ed - 8/12/2009

Question
i am very curious as to where I may be able to find information on other solar systems within our galaxy.  I know that there are over 200 billion stars in the Milky Way and also know that some, if not all, of these stars must have some orbiting planets.  Could you offer any suggestions on where i could look? I havent had much luck online. I feel that maybe my searches are too broad but I dont know how else to narrow them down.

Answer
Sarah,
Have you tried the search term "exoplanets?"  That should get you lots of good stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoplanet

Kepler has been in the news a lot lately.  It is expected to dramatically increase the number of known solar systems in our galaxy, in the near future.  (At the moment there are a few hundred).  Look at the bottom of the wikipedia article for the links to the actual NASA websites for the mission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_Mission

Keep Looking Up!
--Ed