5,000 Planets
August 28, 2023
The first planets orbiting a star similar to the Sun were announced in 1995.
By last spring, the number had passed 5,000, with thousands more possible planets awaiting confirmation.
The pace of the discovery really picked up in 2009 with the launch of the planet-hunting Kepler space telescope.
It found thousands of planets that astronomers have confirmed with additional observations, and thousands more that they're still trying to lock down.
And although Kepler shut down five years ago, it still accounts for a majority of the planets discovered to date.
A successor, known as TESS, has discovered hundreds more, and is still scanning the skies.
So are other telescopes in space and on the ground,
Source
www.stardate.org
The first planets orbiting a star similar to the Sun were announced in 1995.
By last spring, the number had passed 5,000, with thousands more possible planets awaiting confirmation.
The pace of the discovery really picked up in 2009 with the launch of the planet-hunting Kepler space telescope.
It found thousands of planets that astronomers have confirmed with additional observations, and thousands more that they're still trying to lock down.
And although Kepler shut down five years ago, it still accounts for a majority of the planets discovered to date.
A successor, known as TESS, has discovered hundreds more, and is still scanning the skies.
So are other telescopes in space and on the ground,
Source
www.stardate.org
