1995–2015: Something Completely New: Exoplanets

The distance from the Sun to a star was measured for the first time in 1838. From this result, researchers calculated how much light the star radiated, and the outcome was very comparable to the amount that the Sun emitted. This confirmed once and for all what had been suspected for centuries: the Sun was a star like all the others that people saw in the night sky. When the distance of more stars was measured, the Sun was seen to be a ‘medium’ star; not big, not heavy, not hot, not cold. However the Sun did have something very uncommon: planets, moons, comets. It was obvious to assume that in this respect, too, the Sun was no different from other stars, but there was no evidence at all for this assumption.