Opens in a new window Opens an external site Opens an external site in a new window Toggle navigation Close audio options Play video Close modal Previous Next Toggle audio voice over Toggle ambient music
NASA
Exoplanet Exploration
Skip Navigation
menu close modal

Multimedia

Coronagraph explanation 2 minutes

An animation explaining how the hybrid Lyot coronagraph works. Watch the longer version here.

Related

Video of the LBTI instrument's view of the sky.
More
Video of the LBTI instrument's view of the sky.
Video of the LBTI instrument's view of the sky.
On March 21, 2022, the number of known exoplanets passed 5,000 according to the NASA Exoplanet Archive. This animation and sonification tracks humanity's discovery of the planets beyond our solar s...
More
Video infographic showing numbers of exoplanet discoveries over time.
Video: 5,000 Exoplanets: Listen to the Sounds of Discovery (NASA Data Sonification)
This sculpture by Angela Palmer is created from the data gathered to date by the Kepler telescope. It literally reproduces in three dimensions the chunk of sky the Kepler telescope has been trained...
More
Goldilocks
Goldilocks
This is the animated storybook tale of the Spitzer spacecraft and its exploits as part of the space telescope superteam known as NASA’s Great Observatories, which also includes Hubble, Chandra and ...
More
An animated superhero video showing the Spitzer Space Telescope along with Hubble, Chandra and Compton observing the universe with their special powers of observation.
Spitzer and NASA's ‘Great Observatories' Space Telescopes
Kepler does not orbit the Earth, rather it orbits the Sun in concert with the Earth, slowly drifting away from Earth. Every 61 Earth years, Kepler and Earth will pass by each other.
More
Kepler's Orbit
Kepler's Orbit
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 without dissolves.
More
Spitzer Exoplanet Observation of HD 80606b
Spitzer Exoplanet Observation of HD 80606b
The Kepler spacecraft, responsible for thousands of new potential disoveries.
More
Kepler Spacecraft
Kepler Spacecraft
This artists impression shows the free-floating planet CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9. This is the closest such object to the Solar System.
More
Artists impression of the free-floating planet CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9
Artists impression of the free-floating planet CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9
This episode of "Hubble at 25" uncovers Hubble's Key role in the study of planets beyond our solar system.
More
Oh Planet, What Art Thou?
Oh Planet, What Art Thou?
This artist's concept shows a Jupiter-like planet, called Upsilon Andromedae b, soaking up the scorching rays of its nearby star. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope determined that this planet is two-f...
More
Exotic World Blisters Under the Sun
Exotic World Blisters Under the Sun
How do we explore worlds beyond our own? (Downloadable fact sheet)
More
A printable fact shee about the various discovery methods to find exoplanets.
The Search for Other Earths (fact sheet)
Audience: 3rd grade and older This slide introduces four major space telescopes that are contributing to our study of exoplanets: Hubble, Kepler/K2, Tess, and James Webb.
More
This slide introduces four major space telescopes that are contributing to our study of exoplanets: Hubble, Kepler/K2, Tess, and James Webb.
Comparison of Space Telescopes
Kepler arriving at the Kennedy Space Center.
More
Kepler arriving at the Kennedy Space Center
Kepler arriving at the Kennedy Space Center
This slide breaks down and explains what black holes are.
More
A slide explaining what a black hole is.
Black Holes: What Are Black Holes?
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...
More
HAT-P-7 Light Curve Magnified
HAT-P-7 Light Curve Magnified
This image from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) shows the newly discovered planet HD95086 b, next to its parent star.
More
VLT image of exoplanet HD 95086 b
VLT image of exoplanet HD 95086 b
This slide explains the radial velocity method for exoplanet detection. 
More
A slide explaining the radial velocity method for exoplanet detection.
Exoplanet Detection: Radial Velocity Method
NASA's Kepler mission has discovered a world where two suns set over the horizon instead of just one.
More
Where the Sun Sets Twice (Artist Concept)
Where the Sun Sets Twice (Artist Concept)
Watch the PlanetQuest interactive timeline in video format!
More
PlanetQuest Timeline
PlanetQuest Timeline
This artist's concept shows what the weather might look like on cool star-like bodies known as brown dwarfs. These giant balls of gas start life like stars, but lack the mass to sustain nuclear fus...
More
Storms on Brown Dwarfs
Storms on Brown Dwarfs
This slide explains the transit method for exoplanet detection.
More
A slide that explains the transit method for exoplanet detection.
Exoplanet Detection: Transit Method
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have taken the first ever image of the snow line in an infant planetary system.
More
TW Hydrae snow line distance compared to the Solar System
TW Hydrae snow line distance compared to the Solar System
Audience: 3rd grade and older This slide shows the difference in temperature between planets orbiting an M Dwarf star and our Sun. The second view shows their relative distance from their star.
More
This slide shows the difference in temperature between planets orbiting an M Dwarf star and our Sun. The second view shows their relative distance from their star.
Comparison of Host Stars with Solar System Planets (F and C)
This artists concept contrasts our familiar Earth with the exceptionally strange planet known as 55 Cancri e.
More
Earth and Super-Earth
Earth and Super-Earth
A series of images of a distant gas giant reveal its orbit around its star Beta Pictoris, located some 60 light-years from Earth.
More
Gemini Planet Imager shows darting exoplanet
Gemini Planet Imager shows darting exoplanet

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.
More

Strange New Worlds

Explore an interactive gallery of some of the most intriguing and exotic planets discovered so far.
More
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.
More

Stay Connected

What is an Exoplanet?

    • Overview
    • In Depth
    • Planet Types
    • Stars
    • What is the Universe?

The Search For Life

    • The Big Questions
    • Are We Alone?
    • Can We Find Life?
    • The Habitable Zone
    • Why We Search

Discovery

    • Discoveries Dashboard
    • How We Find and Characterize
    • Missions
    • People
    • Exoplanet Catalog

Explore

    • Exoplanet Travel Bureau
    • 5 Ways to Find a Planet
    • Eyes on Exoplanets
    • Strange New Worlds
    • Historic Timeline
    • Kepler Timeline
    • Universe of Monsters
    • Galaxy of Horrors

More

    • Multimedia Resources
    • News & Features
    • Blog
    • Glossary
    • Citizen Science

For Scientists

    • Exoplanet Exploration Program
    • Science Mission Directorate
  • Feedback
  • |
  • Sitemap
Managed by the Exoplanet Exploration Program and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA’s Astrophysics Division

Science Writer: Pat Brennan
Site Editor: Kristen Walbolt
Manager: Anya Biferno