ESA - What are exoplanets? We use cookies which are essential for you to access our website and/or to provide you with our services, enable you to share our website content via your social media accounts and allow us to measure and improve the performance of our website. Accept all cookies Accept only essential cookies See our Cookie Notice ESA Home About ESA Careers at ESA Space in Member States Science & Exploration Space Safety Applications Enabling & Support ESA Web TV Videos Images About ESA The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. 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Media representatives are invited to watch an online press briefing, which will take place at 14:00 CEST (13:00 BST), and talk to the scientists behind the mission. 09/07/2020 13761 views Open Space Safety Protecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit Go to topic About safety and security Protecting our Pale Blue Dot The story so far Plans for the future Asteroids About asteroids and Planetary Defence Asteroid danger explained Flyeye telescope: asteroid detection Hera mission: asteroid deflection Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre Space junk About space debris Space debris by the numbers Space Environment Report In space refuelling, refurbishing and removing Safety from space Clean Space ecodesign cleansat Space for Earth Supporting Sustainable Development Space weather Solar Hazards ESA Vigil: providing solar warning Space Weather Warning Network Latest Image Space Safety How Hera asteroid mission will phone home 22/12/2022 2969 views 100 likes View Story Space Safety Christmas challenge: find mystery asteroid 09/12/2022 7818 views 51 likes Read Video 00:02:52 Space Safety After DART comes Hera 27/09/2022 3909 views 109 likes Play Focus on Space Safety Asteroid Day Live airs 30 June Asteroid Day Live airs 30 June Open Applications Using space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth Go to topic Observing the Earth Observing the Earth Future EO Copernicus Meteorology Space for our climate Satellite missions Telecommunications Telecommunications & Integrated Applications ARTES Core Competitiveness Partnership Projects ESA Space Solutions Satellite navigation Navigation Galileo and EGNOS NAVISP GNSS Evolution Commercialisation ESA Commercialisation Gateway Open Space Innovation Platform Business Incubation ESA Space Solutions Latest Story Applications ESA to invite companies to connect with the Moon 21/12/2022 3049 views 63 likes Read Video 00:00:48 Applications Coming soon: MTG The Next Generation 06/12/2022 1927 views 86 likes Play Image Applications Tenoumer Crater, Mauritania 30/06/2022 5634 views 137 likes View Focus on Applications Register for Φ-week Open Press Release N° 9–2020 Applications Call for Media: Rapid action in response to coronavirus with Earth observation ESA and the European Commission invite media representatives to follow an online event on 5 June at 11:00 CEST where they will present the ‘Rapid Action Coronavirus Earth observation’ dashboard, also known as RACE. The RACE platform provides access to key environmental, economic and social indicators to measure the impact of the coronavirus lockdown and monitor post-lockdown recovery. 29/05/2020 6754 views Open Enabling & Support Making space accessible and developing the technologies for the future Go to topic Building missions Space Engineering and Technology Test centre Laboratories Concurrent Design Facility Preparing for the future Shaping the Future Discovery and Preparation Advanced Concepts Team Space transportation Space Transportation Ariane Vega Space Rider Future space transportation Boost! Europe's Spaceport Previous launches Flying missions Operations ESA ground stations Proba-3 Technology CubeSats Latest Story Enabling & Support Simulator Uses GNSS to Track Railway Positioning 03/01/2023 163 views 1 likes Read Image Enabling & Support Young ESA team prepare Ariane 6 passenger 21/12/2022 1506 views 63 likes View Focus on Enabling & Support Seeing how a spacecraft dies Open Video 00:03:03 Enabling & Support Welcome to the Ariane 6 launch complex 19/10/2021 3266 views 20 likes Play Science & Exploration What are exoplanets? 17211 views 89 likes ESA / Science & Exploration / Space Science / Cheops An exoplanet is a planet outside our own Solar System, sometimes referred to as an extrasolar planet. As of late 2019, more than 4000 exoplanets have been confirmed. Some are massive, like Jupiter, but orbit much closer to their host star than Mercury does to our Sun. Others are rocky or icy, and many simply do not have analogues in our Solar System. There are systems hosting more than one planet, a planet orbiting two stars, and a handful of planets that may even have the right conditions for water to be stable on their surfaces, an essential ingredient for life as we know it. Why study exoplanets? Cheops “Are we alone in the Universe?” is one of the most profound questions humankind can ask. The discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a star like our Sun was made in 1995, and today the study of exoplanets is one of the fastest growing areas in astronomy.Studying the diverse range of exoplanets and planetary systems that have been discovered to date – from the small to the large, from those that appear Earth-like to the profoundly bizarre – not only helps us learn about how these particular systems formed and evolved, but provides essential clues towards understanding whether and where life might exist elsewhere in the Universe.Read more about the zoo of exoplanets being discovered here Like Thank you for liking You have already liked this page, you can only like it once! 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