[SE5] What's the best discovering strategy?

[bearclaw]

PDF said:
IMHO it's rather strange to not even see the biggest planets when entering the system (imagine missing Jupiter

Actually, missing a planet like Jupiter would be easy. Imagine entering a solar system at an orbit of the Pluto. Well, to be fair at Neptune since it's the furthest "planet". Even on a 2 dimentional plane, the area is incomprehensible. In fact, even at that distance, the Sun would look like just the brightest star in the sky. Larger than the rest but still very small.

Look at it this way: From Earth, we are much much closer to Jupiter than Neptune's orbit. Without some prior knowledge of what to look for, and even with a substantial telescope (like Manu Ki or even Hubble) finding Jupiter could take a very long time unless you were very lucky.

Even Venus, our closest planet, is mistaken for a star most of the time.

To quote Carl Sagen: "Space is big. Really big."