From possible planets to STRANGE NEW WORLDS

Back in 1992, humanity received its first definitive answer to a question it had been asking for centuries: are there other worlds beyond our Solar System? The answer came in the form of Poltergeist and Phobetor, the first potential planets to have their existence confirmed and become fully fledged exoplanets.

Over the following three decades, dozens of surveys and observation campaigns have tracked down ever more exoplanets in the Milky Way, and on 21 March 2022 the NASA Exoplanet Archive announced it had passed the threshold of 5,000 validated exoplanets.

But while it took 30 years to reach this number, doubling it will take considerably less time. In the same month as the archive’s announcement, astronomers working on NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) revealed they had obtained another 5,000 exoplanet candidates, which were awaiting confirmation, and there were even more to come.

It’s a huge number to keep track of. Back in the early days