Who Really Discovered the First Exoplanet?

Who Really Discovered the First Exoplanet?

4 years ago
Anonymous $xdcOWPpsb_

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/who-really-discovered-the-first-exoplanet/

The year 1995, like 1492, was the dawn of an age of discovery. The new explorers, instead of using seagoing vessels to discover continents, use telescopes to discover planets revolving around distant stars. Thousands of these extrasolar planets, a term usually shortened to “exoplanets,” have been found, including a few potentially Earth-like worlds, along with bizarre objects that bear no resemblance to any of the planets in our solar system.

Two of these exoplanet explorers, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, were recently awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery they made in 1995. My colleagues and I are united in our admiration for their pioneering work, and in our pride to be continuing what they began.