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Interesting US History
A Website Devoted to Interesting Events in U.S. History

 

 
 

 

ON THIS DAY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY

October 6, 1995

The Discovery of a Planet Orbiting a Sun-like Star
in the Constellation Pegasus is Announced

On this day in 1995, the discovery of the first planet orbiting a sun-like star was announced by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. The planet has been informally named Bellerophon.

The star is named 51 Pegasi which is a yellow dwarf star estimated to be 7.5 billion years old which is older than the sun. It is located approximately 50.1 light-years from Earth.