Astronomers detect lowest-mass planet around a star like the sun found using direct imaging techniques.

NASA's Kepler mission revealed that there are more planets than stars in our galaxy. It opened our eyes to diverse worlds – some entirely unlike planets found in our solar system.

This plot shows the masses and sizes of the smallest exoplanets for which both quantities have been measured. The solar system planets (shown in red) are for comparison.

This slide explains some of the history of exoplanet detection over the last 30+ years.

Astronomers were elated to find clear skies on a Neptune-size planet called HAT-P-11b, as illustrated here. Without clouds to block their view, they were able to identify water vapor molecules in t...

Astronomers can detect the presence of disks of dust orbiting distant stars by measuring how the combined light from the star and disk changes across different wavelengths.

This slide explains the microlensing method for detecting exoplanets. 

Depiction of a world completely covered with ocean.

The Kepler space telescope will remain for decades in orbit around the Sun, weaving in and out of Earth’s orbital path.

Kepler focal plane assembly in a clean room.

Audience: 3rd grade and older Asteroids move much faster than airplanes; and are also much bigger.

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 ...

The Kepler mission will be looking continuously at over 100,000 stars in one region of the sky, in the Cygnus and Lyra constellations. The field of view is extremely large for an astronomical teles...

The artist's concept depicts Kepler-62f, a super-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, located about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation L...

Watch the PlanetQuest interactive timeline in video format!

An animation of an imagined Earth-sized exoplanet.

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...

An unusual, methane-free world is partially eclipsed by its star in this artist's concept.

The orbit of a planet can cause a star to wobble around in space in relation to nearby stars in the sky.

Jupiter-size exoplanets orbiting close to their stars have upended ideas about how giant planets form. Finding young members of this planet class could help answer key questions.

The Kepler spacecraft, responsible for thousands of new potential disoveries.

A new NASA-sponsored website, DiskDetective.org, lets the public discover embryonic planetary systems hidden among data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission.

Artist’s rendition of the relationship between the composition of the atmosphere and transmitted colors of light.

Audience: 3rd grade and older This slides shows that some exoplanets are in the so-called "habitable zone."

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered the first transiting circumbinary system -- multiple planets orbiting two suns -- 4,900 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus, proving that more t...