“So we really know for sure that there are planets orbiting other stars out there, like Earth does with the sun?” I asked, a dollop of mayonnaise and egg dropping down onto my chin. “Tons of them. I’ve seen them myself,” he said. “We’re finding new stuff out there all the time.” “Like what?” “They found an exoplanet thirteen times bigger than Jupiter. It’s so big, they’re not sure what it even is,” he said. “Could it have life on it?” I asked, suddenly too excited to eat egg salad. Who could eat egg salad when aliens were a possibility? Come to think of it … who could eat egg salad, period? It was gloppy and smelly and left a weird texture on the roof of your mouth. “Could any of these exoplanets have life on them?” He leaned forward. “You ever hear of Gliese five eighty-one?” he asked. I shook my head. “It’s a star. A few years ago they discovered a couple of exoplanets around it. And some scientists believe there is life there. One professor said he’s one hundred percent certain.”
