NASA’s confirmed exoplanet tally has reached 6,000, reflecting decades of discovery and a global effort to map exoplanets beyond the solar system. The milestone marks three decades of steady progress since the first planet was found orbiting a Sun-like star in 1995. Confirmed discoveries are added continuously by researchers worldwide, so there is no single planet that represents number 6,000. NASA’s Exoplanet Science Institute, NExScI, at Caltech’s IPAC in Pasadena, California, maintains the running count and tracks updates as teams submit new confirmations.

Teams around the world contribute to this effort, including the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, and the U.S. National Science Foundation. More than 8,000 candidate planets are awaiting confirmation, and NASA remains at the forefront of the global search for signs of life. Although surveys suggest billions of planets likely orbit stars in the Milky Way, detecting them remains difficult because most are faint and lost in their host star’s glare. Fewer than 100 exoplanets have been directly imaged to date, while the vast majority are found by indirect techniques such as transits and gravitational effects. As the catalog grows, scientists can compare the overall distribution of exoplanets with the familiar lineup of our own solar system.

Discovery rates have accelerated, rising from 5,000 to 6,000 confirmed planets in three years, driven by new instruments and improved analysis. Space telescopes and ground observatories both contribute essential data, and international agencies and research foundations play major roles in follow-up studies. This cooperative approach expands the pool of known planets and improves the quality of the information we have about them.

Future observatories and instruments will sharpen our view of these distant worlds and their potential for life. Planned missions and next-generation ground telescopes will combine higher sensitivity with new techniques to isolate faint planetary light, map atmospheric components, and search for seasonal or surface changes. Improved data will let scientists prioritize the most promising targets for detailed study and will reduce uncertainties about planet sizes, compositions, and climates. This influx of precise measurements will make the search for Earth analogs more efficient and will help answer whether habitable environments are common in the galaxy.

Looking ahead, NASA and its partners are prioritizing the search for rocky, Earth-size planets and detailed studies of exoplanet atmospheres for possible biosignatures. The James Webb Space Telescope has already examined the atmospheres of more than 100 exoplanets, revealing chemistry that helps classify these exoplanets. With thousands of candidates still unconfirmed and more powerful observatories planned, the pace of discovery and the likelihood of finding Earth analogs should increase.