Leader: Stars still remain out of reach

ans of the Star Wars movies will know that Luke Skywalker grew up on a planet orbiting two suns. Binary stars have long been known to exist, but now has come the discovery that one such system also has a planet in orbit though, sadly, it is not capable of supporting a Mr Skywalker, a Darth Vader or even an R2-D2.

But it serves to confirm the Universe is a wondrous place, some of which can be imagined, much of which cannot. Space is indeed the final frontier, full of new worlds, perhaps even sentient beings who might make contact. Who cannot be thrilled by such a prospect?

Back on Earth, the latest space travellers have been, well, er, brought back to Earth with a bump. Three astronauts have returned home by a means which has not advanced much from the days of 50 years ago of the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, in whose honour their capsule, dangling from a parachute to stop it hurtling into Russian soil, was named.

The United States is now too impoverished to sustain, never mind advance upon, the rather more futuristic space shuttle programme and thoughts of getting even to the Moon are now moonshine. The imaginings of move-makers and pictures from advanced telescopes will have to do. Backwards into the future we shall now boldly go.