exoplanets

An exoplanet (also called extrasolar planet) is one that orbits around a star other than the Sun, constituting solar systems other than ours. The first of them was discovered in 1995 by Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, orbiting the star 51 Pegasi, which was named 51 Pegasi b. Most exoplanets cannot be observed directly, because the brightness of the star prevents their vision; However, they can be detected due to small influences in relation to the star, and this being the case, currently around 200 exoplanets are already known orbiting other stars; some of these systems even have more than one planet orbiting them.

Among the exoplanets discovered, the most similar to our planet is the object OGLE-2005-BLG-390L b, discovered in 2005, with 5.5 times the mass of the Earth. Likewise, the first confirmed image of an extrasolar planet was provided by the VLT observatory of Cerro Paranal (Chile), thanks to the fact that it was orbiting a red dwarf star that emits little luminosity. The successive discoveries of exoplanets have meant a revolution in astronomy, and have opened the doors to thinking that some Earth-like planets will soon be discovered, with the possibility of supporting life.