<p>I very much doubt it would be possible to know this sort of thing with any precision. The best I can do is note that in <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/search/p_=0&amp;q=%3Dfull%3A%22exoplanet%22%20OR%20%3Dfull%3A%22exoplanets%22%20OR%20%3Dfull%22exoplanetary%22%20year%3A1960-1995&amp;sort=date%20desc%2C%20bibcode%20desc" rel="nofollow noreferrer">searching on the Astrophysics Data System</a>, the earliest published occurrences of the term are from 1992, e.g., a short article entitled <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992ESASP.354...81B/abstract" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;Searching for exoplanets&quot;</a> by Bernard Burke in what was probably a conference proceeding. (The actual article is not available, alas.) Some of these papers use &quot;exo-planet&quot; instead of &quot;exoplanet&quot;, which suggests the term was new enough for people to still be uncertain about how to spell it.</p>
<p><a href="http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1993Obs...113..114." rel="nofollow noreferrer">This 1992 report from a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society</a> mentions a talk by Burke in which he &quot;... described the work of the NASA Science Working Group on Exoplanetary Systems between the years 1985 and 1992...&quot; So it's possible the term (or at least the adjectival form) goes back to the 1980s.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-10T11:40:47.780Z
2021-06-10T11:40:47.780Z
Peter Erwin
<p>I can just add a little additional information: <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=exoplanet%2Cextrasolar+planet&amp;year_start=1960&amp;year_end=2010&amp;corpus=28&amp;smoothing=2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Google ngram</a> shows a nice exponential grow for the term &quot;exoplanet&quot; starting in the mid-1990s.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/16IRJ.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/16IRJ.png" alt="exoplanet ngram" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Fun fact:</strong> The earliest exoplanet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_114762_b" rel="nofollow noreferrer">HD 114762 b</a> was announced in 1989 according to <a href="https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/discovery/exoplanet-catalog/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NASA's exoplanet catalog</a>.
The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/339038a0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">original article</a> is paywalled, so I am not sure whether the authors used the term &quot;exoplanet&quot; back then.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-10T14:00:07.683Z
Can you maybe get the accurate year when it was first used? It seems that around 1994.
User123
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-10T14:18:24.253Z
@User123 I would be careful with definite statements deduced from ngram, it very much depends on the used [text corpus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_corpus).
B--rian
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-10T14:57:21.797Z
According to Wikipedia HD 114762 b is actually a red dwarf star although it was originally thought to be a planet.
sno
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-11T07:02:10.083Z
This explains why the term "exoplanet" spiked in the 90s (because of the confirmed detection of two planets around pulsar PSR B1257+12 on 1992 leading to increase in the relevancy of the term "exoplanet").
Nilay Ghosh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-11T07:09:36.040Z
@User123 We can also see some definite rise in the late 80s due to the discovery of HD 114762 b, the first "suspected" scientifically detected exoplanet.
Nilay Ghosh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-10T13:51:33.143Z
2021-06-10T14:50:58.850Z
2021-06-10T14:50:58.850Z
B--rian
<p>After an extensive Google search, I found <a href="https://aertecsolutions.com/en/2018/10/06/exoplanets/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a>. Quoting last sentence of 4th paragraph:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is only in the last 25 years that we have been able to say with complete certainty that these planets exist, so the term “exoplanet” was coined to describe them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Obviously, the last part of the sentence refers to the future of the moment before 25 years. It was written in 2018. Thus, the term exoplanet was coined around 1993.</p>
<p>You can believe me, I have done lots of googling, and I can tell you that the name of the person and the place are almost certainly unknown. But there is still a possibility that the name is actually known. I personally believe that IAU has come up with this term as an organization, but I am not sure because it is not stated anywhere explicitely.</p>
<p>Another name for exoplanet is <em>extrasolar planet</em>. After some thinking I figured out one possibility: When the people at IAU used this term often, it became hard to say it fast. Somebody came up with the shortened version <em>exoplanet</em> and that quickly stuck as term for this. They started using it gradually, so the name of the original person is maybe lost. So, maybe that was once just jargon at IAU, but that quickly got stuck in media and also in general audience.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-09T22:10:21.710Z
every planet which is not Earth is extraterrestrial. You mean 'extrasolar planet' - a wording also often used.
planetmaker
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-10T02:39:59.943Z
Yes, I also believe that the term "exoplanet" was not coined by a single person but rather by the organization. For centuries, many scientists and astronomers suspected planets outside solar system though they didn't have the right tools to observe and it was only possible in the 20th century. Moreover, it is not a hard word that has to be "coined". It rather makes sense: "exo" means external/outside, "planet" is "planet". So, that literally becomes "outside planet". Anybody could have come up with that.
Nilay Ghosh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-10T06:29:13.553Z
@planetmaker Yes, edited.
User123
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-09T21:37:16.657Z
2021-06-10T14:10:12.433Z
2021-06-10T14:10:12.433Z
User123
<p>Who , when and where was the term 'exoplanet' coined?</p>

<exoplanet>
When was the term 'exoplanet' first used?
sno
# When was the term 'exoplanet' first used?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-06-09)

Who , when and where was the term 'exoplanet' coined?

**Tags:** exoplanet


---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-06-10. Score: 3

I very much doubt it would be possible to know this sort of thing with any precision. The best I can do is note that in [searching on the Astrophysics Data System](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/search/p_=0&q=%3Dfull%3A%22exoplanet%22%20OR%20%3Dfull%3A%22exoplanets%22%20OR%20%3Dfull%22exoplanetary%22%20year%3A1960-1995&sort=date%20desc%2C%20bibcode%20desc), the earliest published occurrences of the term are from 1992, e.g., a short article entitled ["Searching for exoplanets"](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992ESASP.354...81B/abstract) by Bernard Burke in what was probably a conference proceeding. (The actual article is not available, alas.) Some of these papers use "exo-planet" instead of "exoplanet", which suggests the term was new enough for people to still be uncertain about how to spell it.

[This 1992 report from a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society](http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1993Obs...113..114.) mentions a talk by Burke in which he "... described the work of the NASA Science Working Group on Exoplanetary Systems between the years 1985 and 1992..." So it's possible the term (or at least the adjectival form) goes back to the 1980s.


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-06-10. Score: 1

I can just add a little additional information: [Google ngram](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=exoplanet%2Cextrasolar+planet&year_start=1960&year_end=2010&corpus=28&smoothing=2) shows a nice exponential grow for the term "exoplanet" starting in the mid-1990s.

[![exoplanet ngram](https://i.sstatic.net/16IRJ.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/16IRJ.png)

**Fun fact:** The earliest exoplanet [HD 114762 b](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_114762_b) was announced in 1989 according to [NASA's exoplanet catalog](https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/discovery/exoplanet-catalog/).
The [original article](https://www.nature.com/articles/339038a0) is paywalled, so I am not sure whether the authors used the term "exoplanet" back then.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Can you maybe get the accurate year when it was first used? It seems that around 1994.  
> **username_2**: @username_3 I would be careful with definite statements deduced from ngram, it very much depends on the used [text corpus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_corpus).  
> **username_0**: According to Wikipedia HD 114762 b is actually a red dwarf star although it was originally thought to be a planet.  
> **username_4**: This explains why the term "exoplanet" spiked in the 90s (because of the confirmed detection of two planets around pulsar PSR B1257+12 on 1992 leading to increase in the relevancy of the term "exoplanet").  
> **username_4**: @username_3 We can also see some definite rise in the late 80s due to the discovery of HD 114762 b, the first "suspected" scientifically detected exoplanet.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2021-06-09. Score: 1

After an extensive Google search, I found [this](https://aertecsolutions.com/en/2018/10/06/exoplanets/). Quoting last sentence of 4th paragraph:

> It is only in the last 25 years that we have been able to say with complete certainty that these planets exist, so the term “exoplanet” was coined to describe them.

Obviously, the last part of the sentence refers to the future of the moment before 25 years. It was written in 2018. Thus, the term exoplanet was coined around 1993.

You can believe me, I have done lots of googling, and I can tell you that the name of the person and the place are almost certainly unknown. But there is still a possibility that the name is actually known. I personally believe that IAU has come up with this term as an organization, but I am not sure because it is not stated anywhere explicitely.

Another name for exoplanet is *extrasolar planet*. After some thinking I figured out one possibility: When the people at IAU used this term often, it became hard to say it fast. Somebody came up with the shortened version *exoplanet* and that quickly stuck as term for this. They started using it gradually, so the name of the original person is maybe lost. So, maybe that was once just jargon at IAU, but that quickly got stuck in media and also in general audience.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: every planet which is not Earth is extraterrestrial. You mean 'extrasolar planet' - a wording also often used.  
> **username_4**: Yes, I also believe that the term "exoplanet" was not coined by a single person but rather by the organization. For centuries, many scientists and astronomers suspected planets outside solar system though they didn't have the right tools to observe and it was only possible in the 20th century. Moreover, it is not a hard word that has to be "coined". It rather makes sense: "exo" means external/outside, "planet" is "planet". So, that literally becomes "outside planet". Anybody could have come up with that.  
> **username_3**: @username_5 Yes, edited.  

---

