NASA celebrates the historic achievement of discovering 5,000 exoplanets in 30 years – Revista Galileu

It may be difficult to measure, but we have galaxy And many others may consist of hundreds of billions of planets throughout the universe. For 30 years, it was the journey that he led telescopes NASA’s spacecraft has demonstrated the discovery of the first exoplanet. Today, there are already more than 5 thousand exoplanets Solar System Calculated, according to an article she posted Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

On March 21, NASA’s Planetary Odometer identified 65 new exoplanets to be included in the space agency’s Exoplanet Archive. The archive records discoveries of planets outside our solar system that appear in scientific papers and that have been confirmed using a variety of detection methods.

Today, the most used form of Discovery New exoplanets are the way to “transit”. A telescope with highly sensitive photodetectors can measure the contrast in brightness of a star When a planet passes in front of it, as in an eclipse. By detecting subtle differences in brightness, astronomers can infer the translation period, orbit radius, and composition of Atmosphere (if there is one) and the size of the planet.

More than 5,000 planets have been found so far ranging from small and rocky planets like Earth to gas giants like Jupiter. There are also super-terrestrial planets, which can be rocky worlds much larger than Earth, and small Neptunes, which are similar but smaller versions of the eighth planet of the solar system. There are also planets orbiting two stars at once, and planets orbiting the remnants of dead, collapsing stars.

Soon, powerful telescopes with high-sensitivity instruments – like the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope It will be able to capture light from the atmospheres of exoplanets. This means that it will be possible to read the gases present, and possibly identify telltale signs habitable conditions.

Alexander Wolszczan World who revealed the first planets outside the solar system and is now a professor at Penn State University, says we’re ushering in an era of discovery that will go beyond simply adding new planets to the list. “In my opinion, it is inevitable that we will find some kind of life somewhere – perhaps some kind of life. primitiveWolszczan . said in the current situation. “The close connection between the chemistry of life on Earth and the chemistry found throughout the universe, as well as the discovery of molecules Organic, suggests that discovering life itself is only a matter of time.