「双语太空播报」5000颗系外行星和计数

Not so long ago, humanity lived in a universe with only a small number of known planets, all of them orbiting our Sun. But a new raft of discoveries marks a scientific high point: More than 5,000 planets are now confirmed to exist beyond our solar system.

The planetary odometer turned on March 21, with the latest batch of 65 exoplanets – planets outside our immediate solar family – added to the NASA Exoplanet Archive. The archive records exoplanet discoveries that appear in peer-reviewed, scientific papers, and that have been confirmed using multiple detection methods or by analytical techniques.

This artist’s concept is of a Jupiter-mass planet orbiting the nearby star Epsilon Eridani, located 10.5 light-years away from Earth.

不久前，人类生活在一个只有少量已知行星的宇宙中，所有这些行星都围绕着我们的太阳运行。 但一系列新的发现标志着一个科学的高点：现在已经证实有5000多颗行星存在于太阳系之外。

行星里程表于3月21日开启，最新一批65颗系外行星——我们太阳系直系外的行星——被添加到NASA系外行星档案中。 该档案记录了同行评审的科学论文中出现的系外行星发现，这些发现已通过多种检测方法或分析技术得到证实。

这位艺术家的概念是一颗木星质量的行星围绕着附近的恒星Epsilon Eridani运行，该恒星距离地球10.5光年。