Number of known exoplanets pass 5,500 with discovery of six new worlds

Scientists have discovered six new exoplanets - planets beyond our solar system - pushing the total number of confirmed worlds discovered to 5,502.

The discovery of new worlds, HD 36384 b, TOI-198 b, TOI-2095 b, TOI-2095 c, TOI-4860 b, and MWC 758 c, marks another major step in the journey to understand exoplanets. They were discovered by different teams as part of five separate studies using different approaches including the radial velocity method, transit and direct imaging.

• HD 36384 b - a super-Jupiter orbiting an enormous M giant star.
• TOI-198 b - a potentially rocky planet that orbits on the innermost edge of the habitable zone around an M dwarf star
• TOI-2095 b and TOI-2095 c are both large, hot super-Earths that orbit in the same system around a shared M dwarf.
• TOI-4860 b - a Jupiter-sized gas giant that orbits an M dwarf star.
• MWC 758 c - a giant protoplanet that orbits a very young star that still has its protoplanetary disk - a rotating disc of gas and dust that can surround a young star.

We've passed 5,500 confirmed exoplanets with six new worlds. We are living in an age of discovery. Listen to the pace of that discovery with the sonification of the first 5,000 worlds. https://t.co/Q49r6GPKC7 pic.twitter.com/cUt5L6CKZg

— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) August 31, 2023

"The field of exoplanet science has exploded since the first exoplanet confirmation in 1992, and with evolving technology, the future for this field looks brighter than ever," NASA said.

The first exoplanets were discovered in 1992 and now three decades later scientists are celebrating this new milestone, thanks to a number of space and ground-based instruments and observatories that help detect and study these distant worlds.

Among others, NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has identified thousands of exoplanet candidates and confirmed over 320 planets to date.