A Flash of Recognition in a Lonely Universe

Several centuries ago, as scientists began to embrace the startling idea that Earth was not the center of the universe, they also began to ponder its startling implication: that the stars in the night sky might be suns in their own right, orbited by their own worlds. Until the 1990s, that idea was no more than a hypothesis. By then, telescopes had become sufficiently advanced to reveal the hard evidence: A star about 50 light-years away was wobbling, a sign that a small world was tugging on it. This world was called an exoplanet.

Astronomers have since discovered more than 5,300 exoplanets, and they’re studying the atmosphere of these worlds to determine of an exoplanet getting swallowed up by its dying star. (Truly, telescopes have .) Although most people probably can’t name an exoplanet—something like “HD 108236 b” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue—the fact that the cosmos is full of them is now well known.