StarDate Online | Beyond the Solar System

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Extrasolar Planets: Worlds of Worlds

As the list of known planets beyond the solar system grows, it seems increasingly likely that many billions of planets inhabit the Milky Way. Most of the planets discovered so far are big and close to their parent stars, so they are unlikely homes for life as we know it. But Earth-like planets should turn up soon, giving new energy to the search for life among the stars. More »

Signs of Life

Astronomy may be within a decade or so of helping to answer one of the most intriguing questions in science: Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? More »

Finding Earth-Like Planets

Most of the planets discovered outside our own solar system are behemoths -- worlds that are at least as massive as Jupiter, the solar system's giant. More »

Great Dates

1796
Pierre Simon Laplace proposes that planets form from disks of gas around newborn stars

1960
Frank Drake uses a radio telescope to conduct the first search for extraterrestrial life

1983
An orbiting infrared telescope sees a possible planet-forming disk around the star Beta Pictoris

1991
Alexander Wolszczan discovers the first confirmed extrasolar planets, orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12

1994
Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discover the first confirmed planet orbiting a Sun-like star, 51 Pegasi

See Also...

Latest news about extrasolar planets from StarDate magazine.

FAQs about space probes and human exploration.

Explorations in 2007.

For an up-to-date list of all extrasolar planets discovered to date, please visit California & Carnegie Planet Search or The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia.

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