Particle.news
Download on the App Store
5 ARTICLES
·
2h ago

NASA Confirms 6,000 Exoplanets as Discovery Pace Accelerates

NASA says the surge in discoveries sets up upcoming missions to target rocky worlds for biosignature searches.

Image
NASA confirma más de 6,000 exoplanetas: ¿Estamos cerca de encontrar vida en el universo?
Los exoplanetas conocidos varían desde pequeños mundos rocosos y gigantes gaseosos hasta planetas ricos en agua y aquellos tan calientes como las estrellas.
La NASA alcanzó un hito histórico: se confirmaron 6.000 exoplanetas, planetas fuera del Sistema Solar, en apenas 30 años de exploración.

Overview

  • The tally climbed from 5,000 to 6,000 in roughly three years, nearly three decades after the first Sun-like host planet 51 Pegasi b was confirmed in 1995.
  • More than 8,000 additional candidates await confirmation, with NASA’s NExScI maintaining a continuously updated catalog that assigns no single object as the literal number 6,000.
  • The confirmed sample includes about 700 rocky planets, along with seven cataloged as of unknown type.
  • Kepler and TESS led recent detections, while ESA’s Gaia and NASA’s forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope are expected to add thousands more finds.
  • JWST has characterized atmospheres for over 100 exoplanets, though detecting Earth-like atmospheres will require more powerful starlight suppression technologies.