The astronomers expect to determine whether the universe is 10 billion years old, 20 billion or something in between.

By measuring velocities of the stars as they orbit each other, astronomers expect to determine their masses and other physical characteristics.

By expanding the research next year to include more gravitational lenses, astronomers expect to detect at least 10 such distant objects, some perhaps even farther away.

While astronomers expected the existence of planets around other stars, this discovery has renewed popular interest in the possibility that life might be discovered outside our solar system.

The astronomers expect to finish surveying the original list in the fall, but they are already laying plans for an expanded survey of up to a million stars.

With infrared telescopes, the astronomers expect to see the rings in an unusually brilliant display, and they will be tilted to present a full view.

From previous observations, astronomers had expected to see a bubble of gases, perhaps the shape of an hourglass, being blown into space by the exploded star.

Dr. Qualta said that no astronomer or astrographer expected the bloody wormhole to reappear any time short of another ten years.

This is not the place astronomers expect to find star clusters, because the gas filaments were considered too thin to accumulate enough material to actually build these many stars.

Intriguing as the discovery was, it was hardly the kind of planetary system that astronomers have expected and hoped to find.