NASA celebrates 30 years of service of its space telescope. In a recent development, the space agency announced it had reached a scientific peak with the discovery of more than 5,000 exoplanets. NASA confirmed that these exoplanets have been identified outside our solar system.
There are 5,005 planets confirmed outside the 8 in our solar system. But “it’s not just a number. Each of them is a new world, a brand new planet.” And the types of planets can be very different! pic.twitter.com/7Y6wAMtdry
— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) March 22, 2022
NASA passed 5000 when on March 21 the planetary odometer came up with the confirmation of 65 exoplanets. Science leader and research scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, Jessie Christiansen, stated that all the planets identified were “brand new” and although researchers knew very little about them, it was still very exciting!
She said, “It’s not just any number.”
What’s in this team of more than 5000 exoplanets?
So far, NASA has managed to identify 5005 exoplanets. NASA has emphasized in its publication that the identified species could span between small, rocky worlds like Earth, gas giants that could be even larger than Jupiter. The possibility that these exoplanets could exist in the form of ‘super-Earths’ was also not disregarded for NASA. Super-Earths, as the name goes, are rocky planets that can be larger than the size of the Earth.
In which there could also be ‘Mini-Neptunes’, which translate to planets smaller than Neptune, placed in our solar system. While adding, NASA had claimed that in this mix of celestial bodies there were also some planets that orbit two stars at any one time and the existence of some planets that could orbit a dead star.