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Proper names of planetary systems often follow common themes – for example, the planets of the star Copernicus are named after European astronomers. Proper names for planets outside of the Solar System – known as exoplanets – are chosen by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) through public naming contests known as NameExoWorlds.
There are eight planets within the Solar System; planets outside of the solar system are also known as exoplanets. Artist's concept of the potentially habitable exoplanet Kepler-186f As of 6 March 2025, there are 5,849 confirmed exoplanets in 4,367 planetary systems , with 981 systems having more than one planet . [ 1 ]
51 Pegasi b: In 1995 this became the first exoplanet orbiting a main-sequence star to have its existence confirmed.It is a hot Jupiter with a 4.2-day orbit. [12]47 Ursae Majoris b: In 1996 this Jupiter-like planet was the first long-period planet discovered, orbiting at 2.11 AU from the star with the eccentricity of 0.049.
Following an extension of the above standard, an exoplanet's name is normally formed by taking the name of its parent star and adding a lowercase letter. The first planet discovered in a system is given the designation "b" (the parent star is considered to be "a") and later planets are given subsequent letters.
Planet Taphao Thong was discovered in 1996 and was one of the first exoplanets to be discovered. [48] The planet was the first long-period extrasolar planet discovered. The other planets were discovered later. [49] Nu 2 Lupi: Lupus: 15 h 21 m 49.57 s: −48° 19′ 01.1″ 5.65: 47: G2V: 0.906: 5664: 10.36: 3: One of the oldest stars in the ...
The exoplanets were found using a statistical technique called "verification by multiplicity". 95% of the discovered exoplanets were smaller than Neptune and four, including Kepler-296f, were less than 2 1/2 the size of Earth and were in habitable zones where surface temperatures are suitable for liquid water. [17] [18] [19]
But eventually more planets of other sorts were found, and it is now clear that hot Jupiters make up the minority of exoplanets. [64] In 1999, Upsilon Andromedae became the first main-sequence star known to have multiple planets. [67] Kepler-16 contains the first discovered planet that orbits a binary main-sequence star system. [68]
The International Astronomical Union has assigned proper names to some known extrasolar bodies, including nearby exoplanets, through the NameExoWorlds project. Planets named in the 2015 event include the planets around Epsilon Eridani (10.5 ly) and Fomalhaut , [ note 4 ] [ 10 ] while planets named in the 2022 event include those around Gliese ...