Whispers from the Abyss: All about Exoplanets

 (This post contains all my knowledge about black holes that I have come to learn recently)

 – Exoplanets

1.1 – What is an Exoplanet?

Put simple, exoplanets are just planets in the universe that don’t orbit our sun. We believed that they existed for hundreds of years despite having no evidence or any detections, until eventually our technology became good enough to let us detect these mysterious little worlds.

1.2 – History into the discovery of exoplanets

Back in the 1600’s there was an Italian philosopher named Giordano Bruno who was far ahead of his time. Bruno believed that the universe has no center, and that the stars in the sky are just like our sun, with their own set of planets and moons surrounding them. In fact, it was this very belief that had him tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition as these facts went against the Catholic beliefs of the time. He was found guilty and burned at the stake. Perhaps the first believer in these wonderful worlds burnt at the stake for getting it right.

1.3- How many have been found?

Right now, we have confirmed the existence of around 5,500 exoplanets [ as of January 2024], with another 10,000 candidates awaiting confirmation.

1.3.1- What kind of exoplanets have been found?

They include planets with rings 600 times larger than Saturn [J1407b, 430 light years away] , ocean worlds with water covering all of the planet’s surface [Kepler 22b, 587 light years away], planets where it rains molten glass [HD 189733b, 65 light years away], and even lonely worlds who don’t orbit a star drifting throughout the galaxy in search of a friend [PSO j318.5-22, 80 light years away].

1.3.2 –  How many exoplanets are left to discover?

Our Milky Way galaxy contains 100 to 200 billion individual stars, most of which have planets orbiting them. 5,500 exoplanets may seem like a lot, but we have barely scratched the surface. In our galaxy alone, there are hundreds of billions of planets left for us to discover.