This composite image shows a brown dwarf star, center, with the first exoplanet of images directly, 2m1207 B, in red next to him. This image was acquired in 2004 by the very large telescope in Chile, operated by the European Observatory of the South. In the years and decades since then, dozens of more exoplanets have been photographed directly, and hundreds are expected more in the next decade. (Credit: ESO/VLT)
Returning to 1990, we had not even found a planet outside our solar system. As we close in 6000, we now see many of them directly.
It is difficult to believe, but it was only in the early 1990s that we discovered the first planet orbiting a star that is not our own sun. Let’s quickly advance to the present, here in 2025, and we are closing 6000 confirmed exoplanets, found and measurements through multiple technologies: the transit method, the star bamboleo method and even direct images. That last is so deeply exciting because it gives us hope that, one day soon, we could take direct images of world -like worlds, some of which may even be inhabited.
