[Astronomy] 1000 exoplanets and counting...

Just a quick Astronomy related update today. This morning saw a notable achievement in the field of exoplanetary science - when the preprint ArXiv updated with new submissions, there were three papers from the WASP project (which I'm part of). Between them they detail the discovery of 13 new hot Jupiter planets, taking the total number of WASP planets up to 100 (although not all have been published yet, and there are many more in the pipeline as well). But more significantly, they took the total number of known exoplanets past the 1000 planets milestone!

This is a fantastic achievement for a field that's not even twenty years old. The Kepler mission, now sadly departed, has of course greatly contributed to this total. Particularly in the regime of smaller planets, multiple planet systems, and more unusual systems. But the contribution of WASP cannot be underestimated; to date it still holds the greatest number of confirmed discoveries by a single project, and the amount that it has managed to do from the ground is testament to the hard work and dedication of its members. I think that the honour of 1000th planet discovery (to go with its discovery of the 500th known exoplanet) is a fitting marker of that.

Here's to many more discoveries in the future!

(Credit: superwasp.org)


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