In January 1992, a pair of astronomers reported a discovery that changed the course of scientific history: They found planets outside our solar system.
The detection of the first confirmed exoplanets — the term for worlds that orbit other stars — validated dreamers who for centuries believed that “innumerable celestial bodies, stars, globes, suns and earths may be sensibly perceived therein by us,” in the words of the Renaissance polymath Giordano Bruno. One such detection — the world 51 Pegasi b in 1995 — led to the award of the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz.
©2019 New York Times News Service