WASHINGTON: NASA has confirmed the existence of over 5,000 exoplanets beyond our solar system, which include numerous ‘hot Jupiters’, ‘super-Earths and ‘mini Neptunes’, Daily Mail reported.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has added 65 more exoplanets to the online NASA Exoplanet Archive, which brings the total to 5,005.
The announcement has been made 30 years after the discovery of the first exoplanets, which were found in 1992.
NASA said its James Webb Space Telescope (depicted here in space) will capture light from atmospheres of exoplanets to read which gases are present to potentially identify tell-tale signs of habitable conditions
NASA added that the new James Webb Telescope will play a major role to map the atmospheres of exoplanets.
According to the US space agency, the planets discovered until now include gas giants bigger than Jupiter, rocky worlds like the Earth, and ‘mini Neptunes’.
However, the Space agency claims that 5,005 is just a fraction of all the exoplanets possibly existing in our galaxy, the Milky Way. It added that the number could go beyond hundreds of billions.
The more than 5,000 exoplanets confirmed in our galaxy so far include a variety of types – among them a mysterious variety is known as ‘super-Earths’ because they are larger than our world and possibly rocky
NASA’s online database shows that the majority of planets are Jupiter or Neptune-like gaseous giants rather than Earth-like terrestrial planets.
