LMR-024 · Planets

Exoplanet

There are more planets in the galaxy than stars in it.

§ A first look

§ Depths

Six ways into the same idea — from bedtime story to chalkboard. No order required.

L1 · Crayon

Told like a bedtime story.

For a curious 10-year-old. No jargon. Just a picture in your head.

All the planets you learned about in school — Mercury, Venus, Mars, the gang — go around our Sun. But our Sun is just one star out of hundreds of billions. It turns out almost every other star also has its own planets going around it. We've found thousands of these so far, including some that look the right size and the right warmth to maybe have water and air and weather. We call them exoplanets, because 'planets that belong to other stars' was apparently too long. There are more planets out there than people who have ever lived. That fact is a lot to sit with.

§ Strange but true

01We've confirmed over 5,800 planets around other stars. Every star in the sky is now a system.
02Some orbit two suns. Some are made of diamond. One is hot enough to evaporate iron.
03The closest exoplanet is at Proxima Centauri — 4.24 light-years away. A million-year walk.

§ From the field journal

Exoplanet

"There are more planets in the galaxy than stars in it."

— observed, sketched, not yet fully understood.

field sketch · graphite & gold leaf

§ Nearby