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5 Ways to Find a Planet- Transits

The Kepler mission found 1,284 new planets via the transit method. When a planet passes directly between its star and an observer, it dims the star's light by a measurable amount.

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This artist's concept illustrates how planetary systems arise out of massive collisions between rocky bodies.
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The Rocky World of Young Planetary Systems
The Rocky World of Young Planetary Systems
Audience: 3rd grade and older This slide compares the difference in size between planets in our solar system and with three kinds of exoplanets: Super Earth,  Neptunian and Gas Giants.
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This slide compares the difference in size between planets in our solar system and with three kinds of exoplanets: Super Earth, Neptunian and Gas Giants.
Comparison of Planet Sizes: Exoplanets
Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), the most versatile spectrograph ever to fly on Hubble, ceased operations in August 2004 due to the failure of its power supply. The STIS instrument's ac...
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STIS Repair: The Quest for Renewed Exploration
STIS Repair: The Quest for Renewed Exploration
Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that a planet orbiting a distant star may have lost its atmosphere but gained a second one through volcanic activity. 
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Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that a planet orbiting a distant star may have lost its atmosphere but gained a second one through volcanic activity.
Distant Planet May Be On Its Second Atmosphere, NASA's Hubble Finds
Kepler is launched at night (10:48 PM EST) on a Delta 2 expendable launch vehicle.
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Kepler Launch and Deployment - Complete
Kepler Launch and Deployment - Complete
This slide explains the transit method for exoplanet detection.
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A slide that explains the transit method for exoplanet detection.
Exoplanet Detection: Transit Method
Launched in March 2009, NASA’s first planet-hunter confirmed more than 2,600 planets beyond our solar system. "Many stars have planets. A lot of these planets are Earth-sized. That's Kepler's legac...
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Video documentary about the legacy of the Kepler space telescope.
Kepler End of Flight Documentary
For the first time since exoplanets, or planets around stars other than the sun, were discovered almost 20 years ago, X-ray observations have detected an exoplanet passing in front of its parent st...
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Exo-eclipse in x-ray vision - illustration only
Exo-eclipse in x-ray vision - illustration only
This diagram illustrates how astronomers can capture the elusive spectra of hot-Jupiter planets by comparing observations including light from both the star and planet to those containing just the ...
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Isolating a Planet's Spectrum
Isolating a Planet's Spectrum
This slide compares the Kepler Space Telescope to the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) space telescope.
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This slide compares the Kepler Space Telescope to the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) space telescope.
Kepler vs TESS: Telescope Comparison
This slide illustrates why we can easily see stars in the night sky but not their planets. The slide incorporates a graphic comparison of Brightness, Size, and Weight.
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a look at stars vs planets, how different they are
Planets vs Stars: Brightness, Size, and Weight ('Mass')
Cluster of Stars in Kepler's Sight - This image zooms into a small portion of Kepler's full field of view -- an expansive, 100-square-degree patch of sky in our Milky Way galaxy.
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Star Cluster NGC 6791 from Kepler First Light Image
Star Cluster NGC 6791 from Kepler First Light Image
This graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows how astronomers located a hot spot on a distant gas planet named upsilon Andromedae b -- and learned that it was in the wrong place.
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How to Find a Planetary Hot Spot
How to Find a Planetary Hot Spot
For the first time since exoplanets, or planets around stars other than the sun, were discovered almost 20 years ago, X-ray observations have detected an exoplanet passing in front of its parent st...
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Exo-eclipse in x-ray vision
Exo-eclipse in x-ray vision
Astronomers detect lowest-mass planet around a star like the sun found using direct imaging techniques.
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Image of gas giant GJ 504b
Image of gas giant GJ 504b
Once the third stage finishes its work, Kepler will have sufficient energy to leave the gravitational pull of Earth and go into orbit around the Sun, trailing behind Earth and slowly drifting away ...
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Kepler Third Stage
Kepler Third Stage
This graph shows the brightness variations of the brown dwarf named 2MASSJ22282889-431026 measured simultaneously by both NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes.
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Probing Brown Dwarf Layers
Probing Brown Dwarf Layers
Animation of HAT-P-7 light curve with magnified y-axis to better show the occultation dip in brightness. When the planet passes behind the star, light that is reflecting off the planet from the sta...
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HAT-P-7 Light Curve Magnified
HAT-P-7 Light Curve Magnified
This image from NASA's Kepler mission shows the telescope's full field of view -- an expansive star-rich patch of sky in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.
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Two Zooms in the Kepler Field
Two Zooms in the Kepler Field
Twenty years ago astronomers discovered the first planet around a sun-like star, 51 Pegasi b. This is the story of the pioneers in planet-hunting and how those who have followed are now poised to a...
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The Search for Another Earth
The Search for Another Earth
This slide explains some of the history of exoplanet detection over the last 30+ years.
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A slide showing the 30+ years of exoplanet detection history.
Exoplanet Discoveries: 30+ Years of History
The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) instrument set its eyes on a dusty star system called Eta Corvi, depicted here in this artist's concept. Recent collisions between comets and roc...
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LBTI hits the dusty trail of Earth-like planets
LBTI hits the dusty trail of Earth-like planets
This image shows our own back yard, astronomically speaking, from a vantage point about 30 light-years away from the sun. It highlights the population of tiny brown dwarfs recently discovered by NA...
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Highlighting our Tiniest Neighbors
Highlighting our Tiniest Neighbors
HD 80606b is a gas giant planet in an eccentric orbit around its star. Every 111 days, the planet passes within 2.8 million miles of the star's surface. Animated with dissolves between frames.
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Spitzer Exoplanet Observation of HD 80606b
Spitzer Exoplanet Observation of HD 80606b
Astronomers have discovered one of the most distant planets known, a gas giant about 13,000 light-years from Earth, called OGLE-2014-BLG-0124L. The planet was discovered using a technique called mi...
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Map of Exoplanets Found in our Galaxy (Artist's Concept)
Map of Exoplanets Found in our Galaxy (Artist's Concept)

Explore Alien Worlds

Exoplanet Travel Bureau

This set of travel posters envision a day when the creativity of scientists and engineers will allow us to do things we can only dream of now.
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Strange New Worlds

Explore an interactive gallery of some of the most intriguing and exotic planets discovered so far.
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A planetary tour through time. The ancients debated the existence of planets beyond our own; now we know of thousands.

Historic Timeline

A planetary tour through time. The ancients debated the existence of planets beyond our own; now we know of thousands.
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