NASA: More than 6.000 exoplanets confirmed, over 8.000 candidates
It was not until the early 1990s that the existence of planets orbiting other stars was confirmed, and now 6.000 are known. This number is likely to grow.
Artistic representation of dozens of exoplanets
(Image: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)
Humanity has already found more than 6.000 planets outside the solar system. This is according to NASA's official database, which now lists 6.007 confirmed exoplanets. In addition, there are more than 8.000 so-called candidates, i.e., indications of an exoplanet that still need to be confirmed. Almost half of all known exoplanets were discovered by the Kepler space telescope, while its successor, TESS, has already contributed almost 700. NASA only counts exoplanets that have been described in research articles and confirmed by various methods or analytical techniques. Other archives therefore arrive at different figures.
The number is growing faster and faster
The existence of planets around other stars was only experimentally confirmed three decades ago; now there are more and more instruments designed specifically for the search. More than two-thirds of the confirmed exoplanets were found using the so-called transit method, which involves observing them as they pass in front of their star. More than 1.100 additional exoplanets were found using the radial velocity method, in which stars reveal their small companions through their own movements. NASA lists nine other methods, but together they have contributed only a few hundred exoplanets to the database.
Videos by heise
According to the database, researchers also know the mass of one-third of the confirmed exoplanets, 102 of which are roughly comparable to Earth. In addition, over 500 exoplanets are about the size of Earth, and the radius is known for almost 4.500 celestial bodies. This and much more data can be found in NASA's "Exoplanet Archive," which is maintained by the Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology. According to NASA, the rate at which the number of confirmed exoplanets is growing has recently accelerated, with the 5.000 mark only being exceeded at the beginning of 2022. Future instruments are likely to cause the number to rise even faster.
(mho)
