As of March 22, the number of exoplanets confirmed by human discovery has officially exceeded the 5,000 mark!
Humans have long discovered that most of the countless stars in the night sky are fixed in position, and only a few of them wander between them, the former called stars and the latter called planets.
Later, we knew that those eye-catching planets, like the earth under our feet, revolved around the sun, illuminated by the sun, and were vassals of the sun, the scum of the solar system; on the contrary, those stars were the "suns" one by one, shining and dazzling, only because they were too far away, they became the glimmer of light in the night sky.
More than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered, of which 4% are about the same or a little smaller than Earth; 31% are between Earth and Neptune; 35% are similar in size to Neptune or Uranus; and the remaining 30% are comparable or even several times larger than Saturn or Jupiter| NASA/JPL-Caltech
So, the question arises: since there are so many planets in an ordinary star like the Sun, and one of them has intelligent life that tries to understand the universe - will there be planets around countless other stars?
Presumably, there should be... But whether scientists talk about evidence, whether there is or not, ultimately needs to be decided by observation.
Since 30 years ago, humans have gradually acquired such observation capabilities. In 1992, the first extrasolar planet was confirmed, orbiting a neutron star, the remains of a star that had died. In 1995, the first exoplanet orbiting a "living" star was confirmed.
Then, various indirect or direct search methods for exoplanets have matured, and special equipment represented by the Kepler telescope has also shown its skills, and more and more various extrasolar planets have been found by humans.
This video, in a visual way, records the discovery process of extrasolar planets.
Extrasolar Planet Discovery 丨NASA/JPL-Caltech/M. Russo, A. Santaguida (SYSTEM Sounds)
On March 22, there were 5,005 known extrasolar planets, and the number is still increasing. Of these planets, 30% resemble Jupiter and Saturn, 35% resemble Uranus and Neptune, 31% are between Neptune and Earth, and only 4% are rocky planets similar to Earth or even smaller.
In addition to confirming their real existence, more details – such as whether there are wind, frost, rain and snow on those planets, whether there are rivers, lakes and seas, whether there is extraterrestrial life and even extraterrestrial civilizations – are limited by the existing observation capabilities, and we still don't know.
However, with the deployment of the Webb Space Telescope in place and the completion of the next generation of ground-based super optical telescopes, there will be more interesting discoveries about extrasolar planets in the near future, shocking the world.
Author: Steed
EDIT: Small towel
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