Outward bound

Natural History, Dec, 2007 by Robert Anderson

In 1958 the prolific science tact and fiction writer Isaac Asimov published "Our Lonely Planet," an article in which he reasoned that given the tremendous distances--four light-years even to the nearest star after the Sun, Proxima Centauri--interstellar space travel would take too long to be practical. But with more than 200 planets now discovered in orbits around nearby stars, it's nice to imagine that we could someday get to one that looks hospitable. On the Internet, Google Earth's new Sky feature makes such flights of fancy a snap. Please visit the magazine online (www.naturalhistorymag.com), where I review Web sites devoted to virtual space travel.

ROBERT ANDERSON is a freelance science writer who lives in Los Angeles.