<p>Yes, that's been the observation spot of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_space_telescope" rel="noreferrer">Kepler telescope</a>. It observed the spot for 9 years with detailed photometry in order to capture all the transits it could find in that region. A prolonged observation time is necessary for transit research as you want to verify a transit by detecting it at least twice (better three times). This way it was able to find most transiting planets (more than 2600 planet candidates) in that region with up to 4 years of orbital period and a cross-section larger than 0.01% of the star (which is about Earth size).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-02T15:40:49.080Z
And since that method only yields a small fraction of the exoplanets in the observed area, and that area is a small fraction of the universe, that tells you that there are many, many, many orders of magnitude more exoplanets than what we've discovered until now.
jcaron
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-02T16:52:57.267Z
@jcaron Or an omniscient god knew where we were going to look, and put most of the exoplanets there just to screw with us.
Barmar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-04T10:23:24.290Z
@Barmar Ok if we are going to go down that path... "Or the Matrix saw us looking at that patch of the sky and procedurally generated a bunch of exoplanet signatures to keep us busy."
Michael
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-04T10:33:49.297Z
@Michael Indeed, it looks increasingly as if [that is most likely](https://oasis-model.github.io/). The AI generating our universe has been trained by observing a gazillion prior universes that were run mechanically or manually. It still has trouble generating naturally-looking hair though which is why [black holes don't have any](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-hair_theorem), creating all kinds of theoretical headaches.
Peter - Reinstate Monica
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-05T02:37:12.500Z
in other words "because that's where we were looking"   presumably the same in-depth squint at another spot would reveal similar densities....
Criggie
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-01T21:32:46.527Z
2024-11-01T21:35:52.767Z
2024-11-01T21:35:52.767Z
planetmaker
<p>I'm a beginner to astronomy. While watching this video <div class="youtube-embed"><div>
                <iframe width="640px" height="395px" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yv4DbU1CWAY?start=0"></iframe>
            </div></div> that illustrates exoplanet discoveries over time, I noticed that there is one spot at 1/3rd of the screen from the left edge that is getting a lot of discoveries. It is the purple cluster of dots at 00:53. I'm thinking it could be that there is a telescope aimed there, but I haven't been able to find confirmation of that.</p>
<p>Why is that one spot getting so many exoplanet discoveries?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-02T14:50:16.657Z
Clearly, it's aliens ;) https://imgflip.com/i/98qlet
Gaston
<exoplanet>
Why did we discover so many exoplanets in this specific part of the sky?
rainbridge
# Why did we discover so many exoplanets in this specific part of the sky?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-11-01)

I'm a beginner to astronomy. While watching this videothat illustrates exoplanet discoveries over time, I noticed that there is one spot at 1/3rd of the screen from the left edge that is getting a lot of discoveries. It is the purple cluster of dots at 00:53. I'm thinking it could be that there is a telescope aimed there, but I haven't been able to find confirmation of that.

Why is that one spot getting so many exoplanet discoveries?

**Tags:** exoplanet
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Clearly, it's aliens ;) https://imgflip.com/i/98qlet  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2024-11-01. Score: 36 | Accepted answer

Yes, that's been the observation spot of the [Kepler telescope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_space_telescope). It observed the spot for 9 years with detailed photometry in order to capture all the transits it could find in that region. A prolonged observation time is necessary for transit research as you want to verify a transit by detecting it at least twice (better three times). This way it was able to find most transiting planets (more than 2600 planet candidates) in that region with up to 4 years of orbital period and a cross-section larger than 0.01% of the star (which is about Earth size).

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: And since that method only yields a small fraction of the exoplanets in the observed area, and that area is a small fraction of the universe, that tells you that there are many, many, many orders of magnitude more exoplanets than what we've discovered until now.  
> **username_4**: @jcaron Or an omniscient god knew where we were going to look, and put most of the exoplanets there just to screw with us.  
> **username_5**: @Barmar Ok if we are going to go down that path... "Or the Matrix saw us looking at that patch of the sky and procedurally generated a bunch of exoplanet signatures to keep us busy."  
> **username_6**: @Michael Indeed, it looks increasingly as if [that is most likely](https://oasis-model.github.io/). The AI generating our universe has been trained by observing a gazillion prior universes that were run mechanically or manually. It still has trouble generating naturally-looking hair though which is why [black holes don't have any](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-hair_theorem), creating all kinds of theoretical headaches.  
> **username_7**: in other words "because that's where we were looking"   presumably the same in-depth squint at another spot would reveal similar densities....  

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