NASA Exoplanet Database Reaches 6,000 Confirmed Alien Worlds

Worlds upon worlds await us within the cosmos and we’re discovering extra on a regular basis. Before 1992, we weren’t even fully sure planets existed exterior of our photo voltaic system. Now, astronomers are discovering a mean of 1 new alien world day by day. In truth, as of September 2025, the official record of confirmed exoplanets reached 6,000 and counting!

For most of human historical past, the boundaries of our universe stretched solely from horizon to horizon. Later, when early astronomers gazed up on the stars, seemingly fastened of their positions inside the heavens, they seen a number of outliers drifting alongside their very own paths. They known as these distant factors of sunshine planētēs, Greek for “wanderers.” Today, we name them planets.

With the invention of the telescope, we may glimpse these worlds for the primary time and our cosmic neighborhood bought a bit bigger. There are island worlds on the market in the dead of night, not less than in our personal neck of the woods. But, moreover the solar, the star that the planets in our photo voltaic system orbit round, the opposite stars are shockingly far-off.

It wasn’t till the ‘90s that our astronomical powers advanced enough to confirm the existence of worlds around other stars. Since that very first discovery, more than 6,000 exoplanets have been confirmed with another 8,000 candidates awaiting confirmation.

“This milestone represents decades of cosmic exploration driven by NASA space telescopes — exploration that has completely changed the way humanity views the night sky,” said NASA acting director, Astrophysics Division, Shawn Domagal-Goldman. “Step by step, from discovery to characterization, NASA missions have built the foundation to answering a fundamental question: Are we alone?”

How exoplanets are found and confirmed

Most exoplanets are too far away for astronomers to observe directly with a telescope. Instead, exoplanets are usually discovered by looking for the signs they leave behind. Fewer than 100 exoplanets have been discovered through direct observation, but that number is expected to grow as new observatories (both on the ground and in space) are constructed.

Usually, astronomers look for ways in which a planet interacts with its extra seen mother or father star to deduce its presence. One means is the transit technique, which seems to be for planets passing between us and the mother or father star. If the planet’s orbit takes it between us and the star, then astronomers can measure the dip in mild attributable to the planet’s transit.

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In different circumstances, astronomers can discover a planet by watching the star wobble. While stars exert a gravitational pull on close by planets, these planets additionally pull on the star. By carefully watching the way in which the star wobbles, astronomers can inform if there are planets close by, even when they’ll’t see them. In both case, astronomers have to verify the dimming or wobbling isn’t attributable to one thing else, which is a part of the explanation so many candidate planets are ready to be confirmed.

The research of exoplanets is comparatively new but it surely’s continuing shortly. The exoplanet database hit 5,000 confirmed exoplanets simply three years in the past in 2022. Today, we’re discovering roughly one new exoplanet day by day and as statement strategies and methods enhance, as new telescopes are constructed or launched, as candidates are confirmed, the speed of discovery will solely get sooner.

Travel to an exoplanet with the crew of the Ark One in SYFY’s The Ark.