How are exoplanets discovered?

Radial Velocity. Up until the launch of the planet hunting spacecraft Kepler in 2009, radial velocity was the most effective method for locating extrasolar planets. The vast majority of Exoplanets detected from Earth were discovered by this method. read more

For exoplanets orbiting a single star, the designation is normally formed by taking the name or, more commonly, designation of its parent star and adding a lower case letter. The first planet discovered in a system is given the designation"b" (the parent star is considered to be"a") and later planets are given subsequent letters. read more

Exoplanets are planets beyond our own solar system. Thousands have been discovered in the past two decades, mostly with NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. These worlds come in a huge variety of sizes and orbits. Some are gigantic planets hugging close to their parent stars; others are icy, some rocky. read more

51 Pegasi b, also called"Dimidium," was the first exoplanet discovered orbiting a star like our sun. This groundbreaking find in 1995 confirmed planets like Earth could exist elsewhere in the universe. read more