Did "Cosmos" Pick the Wrong Hero?

The first episode of the ambitious reboot of Cosmos, which debuted last night, closely follows the template of the first episode of the original. It also differs in some important ways--most of them right on target, but one of them unfortunately off the mark. Special effects have advanced greatly since Carl Sagan's 1980 original; the new visualizations are both more dramatic and more realistic. Science has advanced greatly as well. The updated Cosmos discusses free-floating planets betwee