INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT

2026 is going to be a fantastic year for exoplanet research. The Sky at Night presenter George Dransfield tells us why she's counting down to a flood of new discoveries

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There are some Really Big Things coming up in the world of exoplanets in 2026.

Sadly, they're not until the tail end of the year - tough for someone like me who struggles with patience. (True story: as a child, I'd get so excited about my birthday that I'd spend the night before throwing up – I. Just. Couldn't. Wait.) So, yes, there's a nonzero chance I'll be nauseous with exoplanet anticipation for months.

If you watched July's episode of The Sky at Night, you'll know that PLATO – PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations, ESA's upcoming planet-hunting space telescope – is due for launch in December 2026. PLATO's precision will be exhilarating; it's going to find the kind of exoplanets I love: long-period, really slow-orbiting, cold planets far from their stars.

As if that's not enough, the astronomical community will also welcome the fourth release of data from Gaia (rest in peace, you lovely mission). Gaia, another ESA satellite, changed our field forever; it's impossible to overstate its impact. We now have precisely measured distances to around 1.8 billion stars. Before Gaia, only about 118,000 stars had had their distances measured precisely, and around 2.5 million had good distances at a lower precision.