Deep Impact, the NASA spacecraft that watched a sister craft smash into the Comet Tempel-1, is now roaming the universe in search of extrasolar planets. Deep Impact still has another date with a comet, Hartley 2, but those observations wont start until 2010. During its downtime, scientists will use one of the probes telescopes to examine some of the more than 200 planets that astronomers have discovered in orbit around nearby stars in recent years.
Why not just attack a high-power telescope to an out-of-solar-system asteroid? You'll discover more planents that way and no need to waste fuel.
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