Capt. W. S. Jacob of the East India Observatory in Madras, India, finds orbital anomolies in a binary star he claimed showed evidence of a planet in another star system. But it was a false alarm, and other false discoveries would follow.
Definitely not the brightest star in the night sky from Earth's perspective, but numerous astronomical catalogs include it.
1925 - Using the Hooker 100" telescope in California, Edwin Hubble proves that galaxies are groups of stars like the Milky Way. The discovery is groundbreaking and forever alters our view of the universe.
Dr. Frank Drake creates an equation predicting the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy: 2.31
Debut of television series Star Trek. Publicity photo of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner as Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk. The crew visits many exoplanets throughout their spacey, swashbuckling adventures in the cosmos.
The Hubble Space Telescope is launched in April. This influential mission will later aid in the identification and study of exoplanets, by watching for the dimming caused when a planet moves in between Earth and and the planet's star. Hubble will photograph an exoplanet for the first time.
No chance for life due to radiation exposure.
It's about two and a half times bigger than Jupiter.
Around 90 percent of stars in the universe are normal, or 'main-sequence', like our sun. That creates the potential to discover many more exoplanets increases dramatically. Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz take the honors in making the discovery
Researchers from San Francisco State University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics working independently announce the discovery of a second and third planet orbiting the star Upsilon Andromedae in the constellation Andromeda.
Astro-biologists call this area the 'habitable zone'. It's close enough to its star to harbor water in liquid form and possibly sustain life. But the gravity pull might be an issue. The exoplanet, HD-281, is three times as big as Jupiter.
By looking at its quality and substance of light, scientists detected sodium in planet HD-209's atmosphere along with a tail of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen streaming from the planet.
This star is 13 times the size of the sun and 40 times brighter. Planets are beginning to pop up everywhere.
Spitzer's infrared capabilities will soon contribute to many exoplanet milestones.
Infrared light from exoplanets HD-209 and TrES-1 mark the first time direct light from an exoplanet has been observed.
The telescope detects planets transiting their host stars.
NASA's telescope finds water vapor in the spectrum of planet HD-189. It is the first time water is detected on an exoplanet.
Spitzer uses a spectroscope's, an instrument used to measure different spectrum of light. Data from Spitzer is later used to create an exoplanet's first temperature map.
One the same day, two separate groups of astronomers release the first images of an exoplanet using the Hubble, Keck and Gemini telescopes.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, the discovery is made by analyzing the light spectrum from HD-189
Kepler goes on to observe thousands of stars at once, looking for transiting Earth-like planets. By its mission's end, Kepler's data will tell astronomers how plentiful planets like Earth are in the galaxy.
On 5 March 2011, something obscured KIC-846's brightness by up to 15%, and the other (on 28 February 2013) by up to 22%. In comparison, a planet the size of Jupiter would only obscure a star of this size by 1%, indicating that whatever is blocking light during the star's major dips is not a planet, but rather something covering up to half the width of the star.
Astronomers miss a chance to observe Tabby's Star. The predicted 750-day dip doesn't get recorded.
Astronomers should have another opportunity to record the star's behavior. Who can guess what questions will be answered and what further mysteries will arise?
Hunting exoplanets will become easier and the discoveries will continue. Finding an Earth analog could be coming very soon.
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