More than 5,000 planets have been found so far, including small, rocky worlds like Earth, gas giants several times larger than Jupiter, and “hot Jupiter” in very close orbits around their stars, and there are “super-terrestrial planets”, which are potentially larger, rocky worlds. From our world, the “mini Neptune”, which are smaller versions of Neptune in our system.
“It’s not just a number,” Jesse Christiansen, archival science lead and research scientist at the NASA Institute for Exoplanet Science at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in a statement, “Each one of them is a new world, a whole new planet. I’m excited about everyone.” Because we don’t know anything about them.”
The discovery of exoplanets, which began in 1992, opens an era of discovery that will go beyond simply adding new planets to the list, the scientists said.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), launched in 2018, continues to make new exoplanet discoveries, but powerful next-generation telescopes and their highly sensitive instruments, starting with the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope, will soon be picking up light from the planets’ atmospheres. Exterior gases are read for signs of habitable conditions.
The Roman Nancy Grace Space Telescope, expected to be launched in 2027, will make new discoveries of exoplanets using a variety of methods. The ESA (European Space Agency) mission, ARIEL, which will launch in 2029, will monitor the atmospheres of exoplanets, and a piece of NASA technology on board, called CASE, will help focus on exoplanet clouds and haze.