the.com/exoplanet
A planet orbiting someone else's sun, not yours, so mind your business.
means A planet that orbits a star other than our Sun.
from Built from Greek 'exo-' (outside, external) plus 'planet' (itself from Greek 'planetes,' meaning wanderer, since ancient skywatchers noticed these lights roaming against the fixed stars). 'Exoplanet' itself is a modern coinage, emerging in astronomy once telescopes and detection methods actually let scientists confirm planets beyond our solar system — the first confirmed in the early 1990s — so the word is barely older than the discovery it names.
- first confirmed
- 1992, orbiting a dead pulsar, not a cozy star
- detection trick
- watch stars flicker as planets pass in front
- current tally
- over 5,500 confirmed, millions more suspected
- weirdest find
- a planet made largely of diamond, apparently