For centuries, philosophers and scholars have wondered if the stars in the night sky might have their own planets. And yet, it has only been in the past few decades that astronomers have been able to find any extrasolar planets (aka. exoplanets). In fact, it wasn’t until 1992 that the first two exoplanets were officially confirmed orbiting a pulsar (PSR B1257+12) 2,300 light-years away.
Since then, thousands of exoplanets have been detected and confirmed, most of them in just the past decade. All of this is due to a combination of technological advancements, refinements in exoplanet-hunting methods, and improved coordination between observatories worldwide.
In the coming years, we can expect many more discoveries as new observatories become operational, space telescopes are launched, and machine learning and citizen scientists get better…