The number of alien planets that have been discovered so far by the astronomers are nearing 1,000, just twenty years after spotting the first world beyond our solar system.

According to the reports, four of the five main databases that comprise the discoveries of exoplanets so far have now listed more than 900 confirmed alien worlds, while two of them put the tally at 986.

Fingers are crossed that the 1,000th exoplanet may be announced in a matter of days or weeks.

In 1992, researchers detected two planets orbiting a rotating neutron star, or pulsar, about 1,000 light-years from Earth, however, confirmation of the first alien world circling a “normal” star like our Sun did not come until 1995.

Researchers say, the largest number of discoveries of such planets in the near future could come from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which racked up many finds before being hobbled in May this year.

So far the telescope has already identified a staggering 3,588 planet candidates. But scientists say at least 90 percent of them will end up being the real deal.

Researchers have estimated that every Milky Way star hosts 1.6 planets on an average. This means that our galaxy perhaps harbours 160 billion such worlds.