NASA VONFIRMS 6,000 EXOPLANETS, EXPANDING SEARCH FOR EARTH-LIKE WORLDS

Wed 24 September 2025:

NASA announced that the number of confirmed exoplanets discovered beyond the Solar System has reached 6,000. This milestone marks the highest level reached by rapidly advancing exoplanet research since the 1990s.

In 1992, two planets were discovered orbiting a pulsar for the first time, and in 1995, the first exoplanet orbiting a main-sequence star was found.

With NASA’s Kepler and TESS missions, the number increased rapidly. In 2015, Kepler’s 1,000th exoplanet was confirmed, and in 2016, about 1,500 discoveries were made in a single year. By March 2022, the number reached 5,000. As of September 2025, this number has risen to 6,000.

DIVERSITY IS SURPRISING

The discovered exoplanets show a diversity unlike any planet in the Solar System.

Hot Jupiters: Giant gas planets orbiting very close to their stars, completing their orbits in a few days.
Ultra-short period planets: Planets orbiting every few hours.
Tidally locked worlds: Planets with one side constantly scorched and the other side frozen.
Unusual atmospheres: Planets that may have iron rain, atmospheres as light as foam, or covered with toxic gases.

This diversity provides clues about planet formation processes and the possibility of Earth-like habitable worlds.

DISCOVERY METHODS

Most discoveries are made using the transit method, where the brightness decrease is measured as a planet passes in front of its star. Approximately 4,500 discoveries were made this way.

The radial velocity method, observing a star’s slight wobble, has led to around 1,140 discoveries. Less than 100 planets have been directly imaged.

FUTURE MISSIONS

TESS is still identifying thousands of candidate planets.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (2027) will discover thousands of new planets using microlensing.

ESA’s PLATO mission (2026) will search for rocky planets around Sun-like stars.

The Habitable Worlds Observatory is in the proposal stage but aims to study worlds in habitable zones.

China’s Earth 2.0 telescope (2028) will search for Earth-like planets for four years.

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THE BIGGEST QUESTION: ARE WE ALONE?

Dawn Gelino, Director of NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program, said, “Every new planet provides critical data to understand under what conditions planets can form and how common Earth-like worlds might be. This information is vital to knowing if we are alone in the universe.”

Scientists say the next step is to search for biological traces, or biosignatures, on Earth-like exoplanets. The James Webb Space Telescope is advancing toward this goal with its initial results.

NASA’s recent announcement is seen as a new milestone in humanity’s explorations to understand its place in the universe.

Agencies and A News

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