Name: The discovery of worlds beyond our solar system
Uploaded: undefined
Duration: undefined

NOVA

Carlisle Companies

NOVA Science Trust Logo

In the early 90s’ scientists combed through data and found something surprising that led to the discovery of planets beyond our solar system. It changed science forever.

In the early 90s’ scientists combed through data and found something surprising that led to the discovery of planets beyond our solar system. It changed science forever.

The discovery of worlds beyond our solar system

discovery of worlds beyond our solar system

Space & Flight

The discovery of worlds beyond our solar systemPublished: March 28, 2024Speaker 1: Are we alone in the universe? In the 1970s when Star Wars first came out with tons of planets and aliens, here in reality, we didn't have evidence of a single planet beyond our solar system. Today we know of thousands. So how did we get here?In 1992, scientists combed through data from a pulsar, a type of dead star. As a pulsar rotates, it emits a powerful beam of radio waves that from the perspective of earth, you might've guessed, pulses. But when they looked at the rhythm of the pulses, something was off. They figured out that what was throwing the rhythm off was the mass of two big objects near the pulsar, planets.Three years later, in 1995, a different team of scientists measured the wobble of a sun-like stars position in space, and realized that the wobble could be caused by a giant planet, about 50% bigger than Jupiter, and to the surprise of astronomers everywhere, it was a lot closer to the star than expected.This discovery completely revolutionized what astronomers thought about how planetary systems form around a star, and it kickstarted the hunt for more planets. Over the last three decades, thanks to telescopes on earth and in space, astronomers have found more than 5,000 exoplanets in all kinds of sizes and temperatures. Exoplanets are so common, scientists have estimated there could be a hundred billion or more in the Milky Way Galaxy alone. Though we haven't found ET yet, we think there are a lot of potential worlds out there, so the hunt continues.

United States

Northern Mariana Islands

Puerto Rico

American Samoa

Guam

U.S. Virgin Islands

U.S. Minor Outlying Islands

US & Territories

Colossal explosions shake a remote corner of the Siberian tundra, leaving behind massive craters. In Alaska, a huge lake erupts with bubbles of inflammable gas. Scientists are discovering that these mystifying phenomena add up to a ticking time bomb, as long-frozen permafrost melts and releases vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. What are the implications of these dramatic developments in the Arctic? Scientists and local communities alike are struggling to grasp the scale of the methane threat and what it means for our climate future. (Premiered February 2, 2022)

In the Arctic, enormous releases of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, threaten the climate.

Arctic Sinkholes

The top half of Jupiter in blue and green against a night sky

A composite image of Jupiter using images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt.

Explore the cosmos, delve into ancient history, and follow an extreme rescue with NOVA’s most-watched documentaries released in 2022.

NOVA’s most popular science documentaries of 2022

Four bright orange loops brand off of a dark blue blob

A transmission electron micrograph of HIV-1 virus particles (orange) replicating from the plasma membrane of an infected H9 T cell. Credit: NIAID, Flickr

Scientists have cured a handful of people of HIV by piggybacking on treatments they received for blood cancer. But does that bring a widespread cure any closer?

The discovery of worlds beyond our solar system

Support Provided By

Explore More

How to Find an Exoplanet

Ultimate Space Telescope

Solar Space Telescopes

Transcript

Credits

Support Provided By

Explore More

How to Find an Exoplanet

Ultimate Space Telescope

Solar Space Telescopes