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First exoplanet found around a Sun-like star

In 1995, astronomers detected a blisteringly hot Jupiter-mass planet orbiting closer to its host star than Mercury is to the Sun. This discovery recast our thinking of how planets form and led to a new era of exoplanetary exploration.
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  1. Eliza Kempton

    1. Eliza Kempton is in the Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.

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Anyone over the age of 35 will remember growing up in a world in which only one planetary system was known — our own. We remember proudly reciting the names of the nine planets (eight before Pluto’s discovery in 1930, and again today with its reclassification as a dwarf planet in 2006) and wondering what other planets might exist around the stars in the night sky. Contemplating life beyond the Solar System was relegated to science fiction. This all changed in 1995 when Mayor and Queloz1 reported the detection of the first exoplanet around a Sun-like star.

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Nature 575, 43-44 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02553-0

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