More than 5,000 exoplanets have been identified beyond the solar system, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced. It has been 30 years since NASA first discovered exoplanets in 1992.
According to CNN broadcast on the 22nd (local time), NASA announced that 5005 exoplanets have been officially confirmed so far, adding 65 exoplanets confirmed through scientific papers.
“It’s not just a number,” said Jesse Christianson, research director at NASA’s Exoplanet Science Laboratory.
Of the exoplanets orbiting stars other than the Sun, rocky planets such as Earth and Mars account for 4%. 31% of the exoplanets discovered are classified as ‘super-Earth’, a rocky planet larger than Earth, 35% as an icy planet similar to Neptune or Uranus, and the remaining 30% as a giant gas planet.
Although the existence of life has not been confirmed on exoplanets other than Earth so far, scientists around the world, including NASA, are working to find planets that have the potential to inhabit life. “It is inevitable that we will find some kind of life somewhere,” said Professor Alexander Boltzjan, who was the first to discover exoplanets.
NASA website
