New periodic table sorts 3,700 known exoplanets into 18 categories

A new Periodic Table of Exoplanets guides scientists and science fans alike through over 3,700 known exoplanets, including those that may host life. To organize the thousands of worlds identified since the first exoplanet was discovered in 1992, astronomer Abel Méndez‏ of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico created a chart that sorts the exoplanets into 18 distinct categories. “We know of over 3,700 planets around other stars. They are very diverse,” Méndez‏ said in an interview with Gizmodo. “We can roughly classify them by their size and temperature. Only warm planets with the right size, similar to Earth, might provide some of the conditions for extraterrestrial life.”