This was not long ago when there was only one planet that had living conditions, named Earth. We always thought that we were alone in this whole big universe, but is there anyone else too? But now NASA has gone beyond the cosmic boundary and discovered 5000 exoplanets, all of them orbiting around the sun. This is a milestone achieved by NASA as the scientists worked for 30 years on this.
Some of the planets are not so far from Earth as they are in the same Milky Way as we are. They are thousands of light years away from us. One light year equals 5.88 trillion miles. The closest known exoplanet to Earth, Proxima Centauri b, is about four light-years away.
Now the next mission NASA has to work on is whether these planets have living conditions like water, microbes, gases on the surface or even more like life.
The exo-planets that have been discovered include small, rocky worlds like Earth and gas giants many times larger than Jupiter. There are super Earths that are rocky and bigger than ours. And mini Neptunes are smaller versions of our solar system's Neptune, and some orbit in the habitable zone of their star, a place where temperatures are not too hot or too cold for water. Scientists have also found planets that orbit more than one star and even some that orbit the remnants of dead stars called white dwarfs.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Technology is expected to make a discovery in 2027 that will lead to new discoveries of exoplanets. ESA, the European Space Agency, will start a mission in 2029 to check the atmospheres of all these exoplanets discovered so far.
For the moment, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), launched in 2018, will continue NASA's hunt for new planets. On the other hand, the James Webb Space Telescope mission, launched in December 2021, will help determine whether some planets are habitable.
Lead author Alexander Wolszczsan in the paper 30 years ago described whether scientists would really find any signs of life on all the exoplanets. There are 8,709 exoplanet candidates that require further observation to determine if they are real.
Some of the planets are not so far from Earth as they are in the same Milky Way as we are. They are thousands of light years away from us. One light year equals 5.88 trillion miles. The closest known exoplanet to Earth, Proxima Centauri b, is about four light-years away.
Now the next mission NASA has to work on is whether these planets have living conditions like water, microbes, gases on the surface or even more like life.
The exo-planets that have been discovered include small, rocky worlds like Earth and gas giants many times larger than Jupiter. There are super Earths that are rocky and bigger than ours. And mini Neptunes are smaller versions of our solar system's Neptune, and some orbit in the habitable zone of their star, a place where temperatures are not too hot or too cold for water. Scientists have also found planets that orbit more than one star and even some that orbit the remnants of dead stars called white dwarfs.
"Each one of them is a brand-new planet, I get excited about every one because we don’t know anything about them." said NASA astronomer Jessie Christiansen in a statement.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Technology is expected to make a discovery in 2027 that will lead to new discoveries of exoplanets. ESA, the European Space Agency, will start a mission in 2029 to check the atmospheres of all these exoplanets discovered so far.
For the moment, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), launched in 2018, will continue NASA's hunt for new planets. On the other hand, the James Webb Space Telescope mission, launched in December 2021, will help determine whether some planets are habitable.
Lead author Alexander Wolszczsan in the paper 30 years ago described whether scientists would really find any signs of life on all the exoplanets. There are 8,709 exoplanet candidates that require further observation to determine if they are real.