In a milestone for astronomy – and possibly the search for extraterrestrial life – NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed there are now 5,000 known planets beyond our solar system. | via NPR
Our galaxy is likely home to billions of exoplanets, NASA says. And the truth about extraterrestrial life may be out there.
"To my thinking, it is inevitable that we'll find some kind of life somewhere – most likely of some primitive kind," said Alexander Wolszczan, the lead author of a 1992 paper that confirmed the first exoplanets.Of the 5,000 planets found so far, 35% are Neptune-like, similar in size to Neptune or Uranus and can be ice giants or much warmer.
Then they sent up a space telescope and had it look at more than 170,000 stars, watching for dips in light that would indicate a planet passed by. This is known as the"transit" method, and it's how
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