It was only three decades ago when astronomers got to discover the first planets that exist beyond our Solar System: the two exoplanets were orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12. Surely it wasn’t difficult to guess that there have to be other planets out there orbiting other stars as well, just like it happens in our own Solar System, but no astronomer found one until 1992.
It was a lot more difficult to find an exoplanet than a planet that revolves around our own Sun. But that’s certainly not the case today, in 2022. A lot more exoplanets had been discovered by astronomers since 1992, and the number reached an impressive milestone.
65 new exoplanets found led to the 5,000 milestone
According to NASA’s website, the space agency confirmed the discovery of 5,000 exoplanets. The huge milestone represents an impressive journey led by the space telescopes of NASA.
The milestone is indeed incredible also for the fact that for the most part of history, Earth was the only planet humanity knew. Also, people didn’t even know that it’s a sphere that goes around the Sun, and much more information that we now acknowledge as scientific facts.
The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory even released a relevant video to celebrate the milestone, and you are free to watch it below:
The description is also worthy of attention:
Using powerful telescopes, in space and on the ground, astronomers have now confirmed more than 5,000 exoplanets – planets beyond our solar system. But it’s just a fraction of the likely hundreds of billions of such planets in our Milky Way galaxy.
As current and future telescopes continue to make discoveries, we may someday find potentially habitable planets – or even inhabited worlds. Many more discoveries await.
Could humanity find alien life one day? That’s perhaps the ultimate question. Feel free to tell us what you think!
