Michael P. Fitzgerald

Using the Keck telescope and spectroscopy (light analysis that reveals rotation speed), astronomers measured 32 objects: from giant planets to brown dwarfs — bodies heavier than planets but lighter than stars that never ignited.

Every night, hundreds of observatories scan the sky, yet planets around other stars remain ghosts. Their light is billions of times fainter than the glare of their parent star — the task seems hopeless. But optics found a way: rather than block the star’s light, cancel it with a counter-wave of the same amplitude, shifted by half a period.