NASA has confirmed 6,000 alien worlds scattered across our universe- some are just bizarre

Just three decades ago, astronomers had no evidence that planets commonly orbited other stars. Then in 2025, NASA confirmed more than 6,000 exoplanets across the Milky Way, revealing a staggering diversity of worlds beyond our Solar System. Many of these planets were discovered by NASA's Kepler and TESS missions, which search for the faint dimming of starlight that happens when a planet passes in front of its host star. These discoveries have transformed our understanding of planetary systems, uncovering everything from scorching gas giants and exotic "super-Earths" to rocky worlds that may resemble our own. With thousands of additional candidates still under investigation, the census of known exoplanets continues to grow.