Why aren't discoveries of extrasolar planets reported on the news?

You know how your site says that other people have found some types of planets? Well, why isn't it on the news, or the newspaper?

The first extrasolar planet was discovered around a pulsar in 1991. The first extrasolar planet that orbits a sun-like star was discovered in 1995. Both of these events were covered extensively by every major news organization in the world. Since 1995, there have been many more such discoveries, and each one seems to make its way to the news media. (Though they happen with such frequency now, that most of these no longer receive much play.)

I just did a search of the news archives at CNN's website for "51 Pegasi" (the first sun-like star for which a planet was discovered), and I got this article, which also includes links to several other articles about extrasolar planets. CNN was the first site I tried, and I found an article right away. I assure you that if you go to the website of any major news organization with a searchable archive that goes back more than a year, you will find something. The best strategy would probably be to do what I did, and search for the name of one of the stars with one of these planets. That's probably the easiest way to prevent your search from turning up stories on planets in our own solar system.

December 2002, Christopher Springob (more by Christopher Springob) (Like this Answer)

Still Curious?

Get More 'Curious?' with Our New PODCAST:

More questions about Extrasolar Planets: Previous | Next

How to ask a question:

If you have a follow-up question concerning the above subject, submit it here. If you have a question about another area of astronomy, find the topic you're interested in from the archive on our site menu, or go here for help.

URL: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=428
This page has been accessed 19036 times since December 12, 2002.
Last modified: May 20, 2003 8:08:39 PM

Legal questions? See our copyright, disclaimer and privacy policy.
Ask an Astronomer is hosted by the Astronomy Department at Cornell University and is produced with PHP and MySQL.