Planets Beyond Our Solar System
Overview
Until the 1990s, no one had evidence of planets around Sun-like stars anywhere in the universe, except for Earth and the other eight planets circling the Sun. Then in October 1995, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the Geneva Observatory changed history. They located a planet orbiting 51 Pegasi, a star located just 40 light years away from Earth. Shortly thereafter, additional astronomers chimed in, announcing evidence for other extrasolar planets. The announcements triggered a great deal of excitement in the scientific community and among the public as well. The announcements finally brought confirmation that the nine planets within our solar system are not the only ones in the universe, and begged the question, "Is there life out there?"
Background
Astronomers had long suspected that Sun-like stars had orbiting planetary systems, but they never had data to back up their assumption. They wondered whether planets were common to other stars or rare, whether other planetarysystems were similar to our own, and ultimately whether Earth was the only planet in the universe that could support life as we know it.
In 1995 Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the Geneva Observatory announced that they had collected data verifying the existence of a planet around a star other than the Sun.
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