1.   Although the findings are likely to be closely examined and debated by observational astronomers, they are not completely unexpected.

2.   Not everyone agrees, including David Levy, an Arizona observational astronomer and author.

3.   Observational astronomers have remained skeptical of that supremely bizarre prediction, since they have never found clear, direct proof that the phenomenon exists.

4.   Observational astronomers seem to take a perverse delight in confounding their theoretically inclined colleagues, and the exoplanet findings have done that.

5.   Observational astronomers partially solved this problem by postulating the existence of gaseous disks.

6.   This setback has shifted more of the burden of the search from observational astronomers to particle physicists, increasingly important players in cosmology.

7.   Galileo was what today we might call an observational astronomer.