NASA has announced the discovery of six new worlds, pushing the total number of confirmed planets outside our solar system to 5,502. This latest milestone marks a significant advancement in our understanding of the universe and the potential for life beyond Earth and the Solar System. The fresh batch of six planets outside our immediate solar family has been added to its exoplanet archive, pushing the total beyond the 5,500 mark after the journey of 31 years of astronomical discoveries. The NASA Exoplanet Archive records discoveries that have been confirmed using multiple detection methods. 

Approximately 31 years ago, in 1992, scientists confirmed the first exoplanets when they detected twin planets, Poltergeist and Phobetor, orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. By March 2022, the number of discovered exoplanets surpassed the 5,000 mark. The newly discovered exoplanets showcase a diverse range of characteristics.

According to the discovery, among the newly discovered worlds, HD 36384 b, a super Jupiter, stands out as it orbits an enormous M giant star nearly 40 times the size of our Sun. TOI-198 b, a potentially rocky planet, resides on the inner edge of its star's habitable zone. TOI-2095 b and TOI-2095 c are hot super-Earths orbiting the same M dwarf star, while TOI-4860 b is a rare "hot Jupiter" completing an orbit every 1.52 days around an M dwarf star. Perhaps the most intriguing is MWC 758 c, a giant protoplanet orbiting a young star with a protoplanetary disk, offering insights into early planetary formation.

How Exoplanets Were Discovered?

The exoplanet discoveries employed various detection methods, including the radial velocity technique, which measures stellar wobble caused by orbiting planets, and the transit method, which detects the dimming of starlight as planets pass in front of their host stars. Direct imaging was used to identify MWC 758 c. The field of exoplanet science has experienced exponential growth since the first confirmation in 1992. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), launched in 2018, has been instrumental in identifying thousands of exoplanet candidates. Other space telescopes, including Spitzer, Hubble, and the James Webb Space Telescope, have also contributed significantly to exoplanet research.

Looking ahead, NASA plans to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in May 2027. This telescope will feature a coronagraph instrument designed to image exoplanets directly. This technology could pave the way for future missions like the proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, which aims to search for signs of life on planets outside our solar system.

This milestone demonstrates the rapid progress in exoplanet discovery, from zero confirmed exoplanets three decades ago to over 5,500 today. As our understanding of these distant worlds grows, so does the possibility of finding potentially habitable planets and answering fundamental questions about our place in the universe.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 18, 2024 12:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).