Quick facts
Milestone: Discovery of a Jupiter-size planet around a distant, sunlike star
When: Nov. 1, 1995
Where: Haute-Provence Observatory, France
Who: Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz
In September 1994, a pair of Swiss astronomers at a little observatory nestled in the south of France began training their telescopes on a star about 50 light-years from Earth — and created the field of exoplanet research.
