NASA: The total number of exoplanets discovered exceeds 5,000 | Super Earth | Transit Method | Alien Civilization

[Epoch Times March 25, 2022](The Epoch Times reporter Di Rui compiled and reported) NASA announced that the discovery ofexoplanetThe cumulative number has reached 5,000, which is a milestone in the history of exoplanet exploration in the past 30 years.

On March 21, NASA confirmed the discovery of 65 new objectsexoplanetLater, the exoplanet counter jumped to the 5,000 mark. Some of these planets are about the size of Earth and have rocky surfaces; some are giant gas planets, larger than Jupiter; and some are “mini-Neptunes”, which are similar to Neptune in various characteristics, but smaller than Neptune.

“It’s not just a number, every planet is a world,” said Jessie Christiansen, program chief scientist at NASA’s Exoplanet Science Institute. It’s exciting because we don’t know anything about what’s going on up there.”

NASA says the Milky Way is likely to be home to billions of exoplanets. In so many worlds, there must be other beings.

Of the 5,000 exoplanets discovered so far, 35% are Neptune-like, possibly giant ice balls, or slightly warmer; 31% are “super earth‘, which are planets with rocky surfaces, between Earth and Neptune in volume; about 30 percent are gas giants.

In 1992, astronomers discovered the first exoplanet. Since then, detection techniques have evolved considerably, with new exoplanets being discovered at an ever-increasing rate.

Initially, astronomers speculated on the traces of surrounding planets by observing the tiny wobble of stars as they were pulled by the gravitational pull of the surrounding planets. Later, scientists launched space telescopes that have observed more than 170,000 stars in total. By observing the changes in the brightness of stars, infer the traces of surrounding planets.This method is calledTransit method, several of the exoplanets that have received the most attention from scientists so far have been detected by this method. ◇

Responsible editor: Ye Ziwei#

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