The first discovery of a planet orbiting around a solar type star (51 Pegasi) was made in 1995 by the Swiss astronomers Mayor and Queloz. This was soon confirmed by the American astronomers Marcy  and Butler (UC Berkeley) using the Lick Observatory 120-inch telescope. These and other astronomers have now found some 102 planets orbiting other stars.

The planets were found by measuring the periodic Doppler shift of the parent star as it moves around the center of mass between star and planet. The radial velocity measurements are accurate to 11 miles per hour.

The diagrams below shows the star-planet separations and masses (in Jupiter masses) of some of the newly discovered planets.