The first exoplanets ever discovered were found orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. It took years for astronomers to find exoplanets around sun-like stars. (Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech)

In 1992, astronomers discovered the first exoplanet, or planet
outside our solar system. But it didn’t come in any form they’d really
anticipated.

Neutron stars are the second densest type of object in the
universe outside black holes. They form when a giant star dies and explodes
outward as a result of the col