Andrew Lyne Retracts Phantom Planet

The first planet reported to orbit another star turned out to be a mathematical error, but its retraction earned an ovation. In 1991, astronomer Andrew Lyne and his team claimed to have discovered a planetary companion around a pulsar, only to realize later they had failed to properly remove the effects of Earth's motion from their analysis. When Lyne publicly announced his retraction and explained the mistake at an American Astronomical Society meeting, his scientific peers gave him thunderous applause for his courage and intellectual integrity.

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