What are Exoplanets?
Exoplanets is a neologism used to term planets found around stars other than the Sun. Solar system formation around stars seems now an usual phenomenon resulting from the coalescence of dust disks found when a star forms. Although until now the findings of exoplanets have been biased due to the field of research being limited to about 50 light-years from the Earth -most exoplanets found until now are of the Jupiter class- hopes are neat that Earth-sized planets exist too.
Extrasolar planets or exoplanets are planets which are found outside our own solar system. Study of the universe has revealed over 200 of these planetary bodies, and many more will probably continue to be found as human study of astronomy becomes even more sophisticated. Several universities and observatories have exoplanet research facilities which are dedicated to seeking out and identifying these planets, which is no mean feat when they are billions of light years away. The presence of exoplanets was hypothesized by numerous scientists and astronomers for centuries before the existence of an exoplanet was finally confirmed in 1988. A group of Canadian astronomers managed to identify a mass which they believed was an exoplanet; after much debate over this initial discovery, their discovery was confirmed independently in 2003. Since 1988, a number of exoplanets have been discovered, primarily gas planets like Jupiter. Researchers who work on exoplanets theorize that planets which are
