Bruce Dorminey: This was very much a moving target. I did my utmost to fit in all the latest news from this field through the final stages of editing, while at the same time trying to take the long view as to what would still have significance three to four years down the line. At this early stage of extra-solar planetary research, it's probably best not to read too much into any one discovery, but step back and look at how each new discovery fits into the whole.

This one atmospheric detection is thrilling and an amazing feat of technology, but in the long run ongoing surveys to place parameters on the total number of planets circling nearby sun-like stars are arguably just as significant as the detection of any given planetary atmosphere. However, this atmospheric detection could give added impetus to planned (but yet unfunded) space-based planet-hunting missions that will also analyze extra-solar atmospheres.

Absolutely not. It's crucial that astronomers continue to approach their searches without prejudice to what they will or will not find. The jury is still out on whether there are other habitable earth-like planets orbiting other sun-like stars. And while planet hunters routinely provide their data to SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) researchers, in my view, it's important to allow this planet-hunting branch of astronomy the time to do its methodical work without worrying about if and when they will find extraterrestrial life or extraterrestrial intelligence.

To be fair, astronomers, planetary scientists and theorists are usually very cooperative and helpful. But they are generally initially circumspect about journalists that they don't know personally. So, my only complaint is that it sometimes takes a little time to completely gain their trust, if that's possible.

Before I started covering astronomy, I found a cloudless nighttime sky to be a little overwhelming. I was struggling too hard to wrap my mind around it on a human scale. Today, I know more about what's up there and simply try to accept the fact that (in my lifetime at least) much of it will remain incomprehensible. That allows me to appreciate it for its natural beauty without expending too much energy wondering about its infinite scope.

I wouldn't mind being a virtual visitor to each of these extra-solar planets, but have no desire to go there in the flesh. Remember most of the extra-solar planets found thus far are gaseous giants that are anything but hospitable to life as we know it. It's very likely however that some of our distant ancestors will eventually find their way to another nearby habitable earth-like planet.

I support all aspects of astronomy and if I controlled a $1 billion foundation, I'd like to play astronomical Santa Claus to struggling young graduate students trying to complete their research and to smaller often forgotten observatories that are still capable of doing great work. Oftentimes it's a question of only tens of thousands of dollars. I would also create an astronomical think tank, employing innovative thinkers who would normally be lured away to fields other than astronomy.

It doesn't have to be an either/or. Space science and astronomy both offer infinite technological and scientific spin offs that have been and continue to be used for good here on earth, particularly in medicine. Several years ago I did a newspaper story about a backyard Arkansas entrepreneur who adapted NASA technology to create a highly efficient electronic mosquito-killing contraption, and several tropical countries still plagued by malaria took his invention very seriously.

Whether we are alone in the universe seems to be a sexy topic, but to me the most perplexing questions are the ones that we don't yet have the means to adequately address. I'm particularly interested in how the structure of the universe affects our own existence, looking for the larger meaning in it all. While these are questions that will eventually be addressed scientifically, they can be legitimately posed now, regardless of religious (or lack of religious) beliefs.

I love what I'm doing now and am thankful for the opportunity to continue doing it. In my view, astronomers are the world's true modern-day philosophers and as someone who cares about what they're up to, I'm able to ask some of the same philosophical questions in the course of my work. I love allowing an idea to germinate, then letting it lead me both physically (where I travel to explore it) and also intellectually (whose line of research I might end up following, etc.). In this sense, I have a dream job.