This is the second paragraph of my column, which means it's time for science. Webster Cash, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado, has come up with the idea of using a fifty-meter-wide shade to artificially occult a star and bring its planets into view. The system would use a "starshade" that would meander around blocking out stars that scientists thought were good targets, and a space telescope several thousand kilometers away that would be aimed at the starshade. The article suggests that Earthlike planets could be seen over thirty light years away with current space telescope technology.