Humans have long aspired to believe in extrasolar planets, because there must surely be planets elsewhere in the universe. Claims of the discovery of extrasolar planets date back to 1855, when Captain SW Jacobs of the Madras Observatory claimed to have discovered a planet orbiting a binary system (Jacobs 1855), until 1991, when a team of astronomers then announced and retracted the purported discovery of an extrasolar planet around a pulsar star (Lyne and Bailes 1992). Planets are extremely difficult to detect because they are a very faint source of light and the light from its parent star is much brighter and essentially blocks a planet's light (Winters 1996). It was not until 1992 that the first exoplanets were confirmed to orbit a pulsar star (Wolszczan and Frail 1992). Finally, in 1995, the first exoplanet orbiting a main sequence star, a star like our sun, was discovered (Mayor and Queloz 1995). The very first extrasolar planets were discovered to be two Earth-like planets orbiting a pulsar star (Wolszczan and Frail). 1992). A pulsar star is a neutron star that constantly emits beams of radiation. These beams of radiation occur due to a misalignment of the neutron star's rotation axis and its magnetic axis (Pulsars 2011). The misalignment associated with the intense magnetic field and rapid rotation of neutron stars causes the creation of intense electric fields in which electrons are accelerated to high speeds where they produce radiation in the form of light. Even though pulsar stars still emit radiation, they appear to pulse relative to distant observers, because the rotation of the neutron star causes the radiation in its magnetic field to move in and out, "pulsating," from the line of a observer... ... middle of paper ...... Astronomical Society, 228-231. Blackwell Scientific Publications, for the Royal Astronomical Society. http://books.google.com/books?id=pQsAAAAAMAAJ.8. Lyne, AG and M Bailes. 1992. “No planets orbiting PSR1829-10.” » Nature 355 (January 16): 213.9. The Mayor, Michel, and Didier Queloz. 1995. “A Jupiter Mass Companion to a Solar-Like Star.” » Nature 378 (November 23): 355-359. doi:10.1038/378355a0.10. Winters, Jeffrey. 1996. The planet at 51 years old. discovermagazine.com. January 1. http://discovermagazine.com/1996/jan/theplanetat51peg620.11. Wolszczan, A. 1994. “Confirmation of Earth-mass planets orbiting millisecond pulsar PSR B1257+12.” Science 264 (April 22): 538-542. doi:10.1126/science.264.5158.538.12. Wolszczan, A. and DA Frail. 1992. “A planetary system around the millisecond pulsar PSR1257 + 12.” Nature 355 (January 9): 145-147. doi:10.1038/355145a0.