QUESTION:
As more planets are found outside of our solar system, will studying
weather on Neptune and Pluto help us to predict the type of conditions
on the new-discovered planets?

ANSWER FROM Peter Stockman, April 26, 1996:
This excellent question provides its own answer. Yes.  This is an example of
how scientific observations often help each other.  Each new planet
discovery will cause us to reexamine our notions of how our own solar system
developed. And with extra confidence we can use our more detailed
observations of weather and composition in the outer planets to understand
the new discoveries. This will be particularly true when we are able to
directly image the planets around nearby stars.  We should be able to do
that for Jupiter-sized planets soon.  Actually observing Earth-like planets
is much harder because they are smaller and much closer to the glare of the
central star.  But NASA and astronomers are working on a way to do it in
space. Stay tuned.