More than 5,000 worlds beyond our solar system, confirms NASA
NASA has verified the presence of nearly 5000 such planetary entities surrounding stars outside our solar system with the finding of 65 new planets, marking a new milestone in space exploration.
FollowWhen humans first started staring up at the sky, the first idea that sprang to mind was, "Are we alone in the universe?" Over time, we found planets orbiting the Sun that were billions of kilometres apart, constituting our solar system. NASA has gone beyond that cosmic threshold, confirming that there are over 5,000 planets waiting to be discovered in deep space.
NASA has verified the presence of nearly 5000 such planetary entities surrounding stars outside our solar system with the finding of 65 new planets, marking a new milestone in space exploration. The NASA exoplanet archive has received 65 new candidates to investigate, all of which potentially have compositions that could enable the presence of water, microorganisms, gases on the surface, or possibly life.
"The archive documents exoplanet discoveries that appear in peer-reviewed scientific articles and that have been validated using multiple detection methods or analytical techniques," NASA explained, adding that each one is a new world, a brand-new planet.
"It's more than just a number. Each one is a fresh new world, a brand new planet. I'm intrigued by everyone since we don't know anything about them," according to Exoplanet Archive science head Jessie Christiansen in a statement.
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When it comes to composition and properties, the 5000 exoplanets identified so far have a wide variation. Small, rocky planets like Earth, gas giants many times the size of Jupiter, and hot Jupiters in dangerously tight orbits around their stars are among them. There are "super-Earths," which are potentially larger rocky worlds than our own, as well as "mini-Neptunes," which are smaller copies of our system's Neptune.
NASA is no stranger to the discovery of exoplanets. The first was discovered in the early 1990s. NASA stated in July 2019 that the overall number of exoplanets has reached 4,000. The total number has surpassed 5,000 in less than a year.
The NASA Exoplanet Archive is the primary repository for exoplanet discoveries from peer-reviewed scientific articles that have been confirmed using multiple methods of planet detection.
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