Astrono-mers are closing in on 1,000th alien planet to be discovered, just twenty years after spotting the first world beyond our solar system.
Astrono-mers are closing in on 1,000th alien planet to be discovered, just twenty years after spotting the first world beyond our solar system. Four of the five main databases that catalogue the discoveries of exoplanets now list more than 900 confirmed alien worlds, and two of them puts the tally at 986. Therefore, the 1,000th exoplanet may be announced in a matter of days or weeks, Space.com reported. In 1992, researchers detected two planets orbiting a rotating neutron star, or pulsar, about 1,000 light-years from earth, however, confirmation of the first alien world circling a “normal” star like our Sun did not come until 1995. The largest number of discoveries of such planets in the near future could come from Nasa’s Kepler space telescope, which racked up many finds before being hobbled in May 2013, researchers say. The telescope has already identified a staggering 3,588 planet candidates.
