NASA tallies over 5,000 planets beyond our solar system [View all]

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“It’s not just a number. Each one of them is a new world, a brand-new planet. I get excited about every one because we don’t know anything about them,” said Jessie Christiansen, a research scientist with the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute.

Exoplanets are any planet beyond our solar system; some orbit other stars and some are free-floating. NASA announced it has added 65 new exoplanets, adding up to more than 5,000 documented to date. NASA says there are likely billions more exoplanets, with the first discovery dating back to 1992.

The 5,000-plus planets found so far include small, rocky surfaces like Earth, gas giants like Jupiter and some called “hot Jupiters” that have temperatures “scorchingly close to orbits around their stars,” according to NASA. There are also exoplanets that are considered “super-Earths” that are possible rocky worlds bigger than the Earth humans reside on. There are even some exoplanets orbiting two stars at once and planets NASA considers, “stubbornly orbiting the collapsed remnants of dead stars.”

“To my thinking, it is inevitable that we’ll find some kind of life somewhere – most likely of some primitive kind,” said Alexander Wolszczan, astronomy and astrophysics professor at Pennsylvania State University.

https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/education/600045-nasa-tallies-over-5000-planets-beyond-our-solar-system