5,000 new worlds. A groundbreaking discovery by NASA

On March 21, NASA confirmed that 5,000 worlds outside the solar system have already been found, each with its own unique characteristics. All exoplanets appeared in peer-reviewed studies and were observed using a variety of detection techniques or analysis methods. – It’s not just a number. Each of them is a new world, a completely new planet. I’m excited about each of them because we don’t know anything about them, said NASA astronomer Jessie Christiansen. The first two worlds ever confirmed were discovered in 1992. They were exoplanets with a mass of 4.3 and 3.9 times the mass of Earth. The discovery suggested that the galaxy must have been swarming with stuff. Thanks to astronomers’ observations, we know that there are exoplanets in the universe that are very different from those in our own solar system. For example, hot Jupiters are enormous gas giants in incredibly close orbits around their stars, and this proximity can cause exoplanet temperatures to be even higher than some stars. Mini Neptunes occupy a space comparable to the size and mass between Earth and Neptune and may potentially be habitable. There are also super-Earths that are as rocky as Earth, but even several times heavier. Studying exoplanets directly is very difficult – they are small, very dark, very distant, and often very close to a bright star whose light obscures anything that an exoplanet might reflect. Because of this, there are still many things that we don’t know about. There are also many worlds that still exceed our current detection thresholds. – I feel real satisfaction and admiration for what is there. None of us expected such a huge variety of planetary systems and stars. It’s just amazing – said William Borucki, NASA astronomer.

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