There are more than 5,000 confirmed planets beyond our solar system, NASA says

[Jilly_in_VA]

In a milestone for astronomy – and possibly the search for extraterrestrial life – NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed there are now 5,000 known planets beyond our solar system.

These so-called exoplanets include rocky worlds roughly the size of Earth, gas giants larger than Jupiter and "mini-Neptunes."

"It's not just a number," Jessie Christiansen, science lead for the NASA Exoplanet Archive and a research scientist with the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech, said in a statement.

"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," Christiansen added.

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/22/1088009414/there-are-more-than-5-000-confirmed-exoplanets-beyond-our-solar-system-nasa-says
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Those are just the ones we can see from here *goosebumps*

[Throck]

1. They probably all have intelligent peaceful life too.

Which is why they stay away from Earth.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Are any of them accepting Republicans? I'll put in my 2 bucks for blastoff /nt

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. Send 'em to the hot ones

and the gas giants

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. I don't believe Earth-sized rocky planets

have actually been found yet. At least not according to My Son The Astronomer who is doing exo planet research.

Most of what they've found are gas giants, "hot Jupiters" very close to their stars. That's mainly because smaller planets are a lot harder to detect, and ones that take much time to revolve around their stars are likewise harder to locate. As the exo planet finding technology improves, we will eventually find smaller planets that are farther away from their stars.

Essentially, every single star we look at turns out to have planets. That's the good news. Whether any of them might harbor any sort of life, let alone intelligent life, remains to be seen. Also, according to My Son The Astronomer, the current thinking is that we may well be pretty much the first intelligent life in our galaxy. The conditions required for even the very beginning of life are so specific, and it apparently takes a VERY long time to go from a single celled form to anything more complex, that those conditions may be vanishingly rare. Plus, when you get closer to the center of the galaxy, deadly radiation would tend to eliminate most life. So the idea that there are any number of older and vastly superior life forms out there is just an idea. So far, zero evidence.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. There has been such planets found...

Rocky planet found outside Solar System | Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/news050613-2
Jun 13, 2005 · Astronomers have already found more than 150 extrasolar planets, also known as exoplanets. But all of them are larger than Uranus, which has 15 times Earth's mass. The recent find is so small that...

Author: Mark Peplow
Publish Year: 2005

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. Actually, I just found this:

https://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/nasas-kepler-discovers-first-earth-size-planet-in-the-habitable-zone-of-another-star

A planet similar in size to ours and apparently in the habitable zone.

[SWBTATTReg]

8. Neat! And thanks for the website. I've added to my Table of Contents...nt

[SWBTATTReg]

5. I don't understand the obsession with finding earth-like planets beyond our solar system,

personally, with the vastness of the universe, the estimated number of galaxies being over 2 trillion (yes, trillion, billion multiplied by 1000 times), the chances of there being similar planets to every one of the Solar System's planets is very likely, in fact, guaranteed I would say.

Why not, instead of so much time finding other planets, that we would never get to, in our lifetime, as well as the next 10,000 lifetimes, that we pursue other things, such as perhaps more closely examining our own solar system, for the mysteries it contains? Perhaps instead of spending so much time on the telescopes that perhaps more energies be devoted to developing cheaper means of transportation, like Musk did (I don't particularly trust him alone w/ our nations' space endeavors in his hands totally).

Develop more easier ways to establish bases on other planets, that is, we know that such environments are pretty well airless, or weak atmospheres, thus with all of the engineering know how we have, that a series of modules, landed by the appropriate craft, could automatically expand into at least a minimal base for the start of human activities.

I'm surprised that we haven't already established a base on the moon already. After all of the Apollo landings, etc., the energy and excitement to establish new boundaries on the moon and elsewhere, to establish mankind elsewhere, besides Earth, and continue our explorations, continue our scientific explorations.

Contrary to what many people say, I do have faith in the human condition, in the ability of humankind to rise above the cloud of distrust, of war, etc. and do good things. Good things that will bring more jobs, more technical benefits to the human race.

[Jilly_in_VA]

9. I think it was Neil de Grasse Tyson

who theorized that the aliens out there have either looked at us and decided we're not worth bothering with, or that they communicate so differently that we're not getting or understanding their signals.

[Duppers]

10. He also said...

"If our solar system is not unusual, then there are so many planets in the universe that, for example, they outnumber the sum of all sounds and words ever uttered by every human who has ever lived. To declare that Earth must be the only planet with life in the universe would be inexcusably bigheaded of us."
- Neil deGrasse Tyson


Most humans are indeed bigheaded; after all, aren't we the only species in the universe that can achieve eternal life?!