From Dr. Becky.
AD – Go to https://ground.news/drbecky to stay fully informed with the latest Space and Science news. Save 40% off the Vantage plan through my link for unlimited access this month only. | The hunt for exoplanets, planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy the Milky Way, has been going for almost 30 years and yet in that time only 5 exoplanets have ever held the title of the “closest known exoplanet to Earth”. Because let’s face it, yes finding planets is cool, but finding the ones closest to us that who knows, one day we might be able to communicate with if there’s life on those planets, or maybe even visit if we ever crack the problem faster than light speed travel, those are the ones that capture everyone’s attention. And the fun thing is, since 2016, we’ve officially found the closest exoplanet to Earth that’s in orbit around a star. There won’t be another to hold the title. So in this video we’re going to dive into the timeline all the way from the first exoplanet discovered in 1995 of 51 Pegasi b, to the closest exoplanet to Earth in 2016, Proxima Centauri b.
Mayor & Queloz (1995; 51 Pegasi b discovery) – https://www.nature.com/articles/Art1
Butler & Marcy (1996; 47 Ursae Majoris b discovery) – https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/310102/pdf
Marcy et al. (1998; Gilese 876b discovery) – https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/311623/pdf
Delfosse et al. (1998; Gilese 876b discovery) – https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1998A&A…338L..67D
Hatzes et al. (2000; Epsilon Eridani b discovery) – https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/317319/pdf
Benedict et al. (2006; Epsilon Eridani b confirmation) – https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/508323/pdf
Tuomi et al. (2014; hints at planet existence around Proxima Centauri) – https://arxiv.org/pdf/1403.0430
Angalde-Escudé et al. (2016; Proxima Centauri b discovery) – https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19106
Damasso et al. (2020; another planet around Proxima Centauri?) – https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aax7467
Faria et al. (2022; another planet around Proxima Centauri?) – https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.05188
00:00 Introduction
01:10 AD Ground News
03:21 1995 51 Pegasi b 50 light years
06:10 1996 47 Ursae Majoris b 46 light years
07:30 1998 Gilese 876b 15.2 light years
08:45 2000 Epsilon Eridani b 10.5 light years
10:00 Exoplanet discoveries of the 2000s and 2010s
10:43 2016 Proxima Centauri b 4.25 light years
15:29 Bloopers
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👩🏽💻 I’m Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don’t know. If you’ve ever wondered about something in space and couldn’t find an answer online – you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
