Exoplanet anniversary: from zero to thousands in 20 years

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Press Release

7 October 2015 Astronomy Now

This year we celebrate the discovery of 51 Pegasi b in October 1995. This giant planet is about half the size of Jupiter and orbits its star in about four days. '51 Peg' helped launch a whole new field of exploration. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
This year we celebrate the discovery of 51 Pegasi b in October 1995. As shown in this artist’s impression, the giant planet is about half the size of Jupiter and orbits its star in about four days. ’51 Peg’ helped launch a whole new field of exploration. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
October 6th 2015 marked the 20th anniversary of the first discovery of a planet orbiting a Sun-like, or “normal,” star beyond our solar system. The planet, called 51 Pegasi b, belongs to a class of planets now known as exoplanets. Since that momentous discovery, thousands more exoplanets have been found in our galaxy.

As of today, there are more than 1,800 confirmed exoplanets. More than 1,000 of these were discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission, breaking wide open the field of exoplanet science. Kepler has even identified some planets with Earth-like traits, such as Kepler-452b, a near-Earth-size planet found in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. The habitable zone is the region around a star where temperatures are just right for one of life’s essential ingredients — water — to pool on a planet’s surface.

For details about planned public events to mark the occasion, and other related stories and graphics, visit: PlanetQuest — The Search for Another Earth.

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