Total Exoplanet Count Exceeds 700

Astronomers are excited to announce that worldwide databases now contain the names and locations of more than 700 extrasolar planets. These catalogs contain everything from small, Earth-like objects to massive gas giants and hot Jupiters.

The first exoplanet was confirmed beyond any doubt back in 1992, and the pace at which new such objects are detected quickens every year. At this point, the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia includes 702 exoplanets, located in 577 planetary systems and 82 multiple-planet systems.

An additional 1,235 exoplanetary candidates still await confirmation or denial. They were detected by the first space observatory to be launched specifically for such studies, the NASA Kepler Telescope.

Astronomers expect the number of known worlds to increase drastically over the next few years. Estimates place the number of detectable exoplanets in the Milky Way to around 50 billion, so a lot of work still remains to be done, Space reports.