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Coronagraph explanation 2 minutes

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

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Since a giant planet in a scorching orbit captured public attention in 1995, a sky full of strange and exotic exoplanets – planets orbiting other stars – has only grown richer in variety and detail.
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Since a giant planet in a scorching orbit captured public attention in 1995, a sky full of strange and exotic exoplanets – planets orbiting other stars – has only grown richer in variety and detail.
Exoplanet Types Graphic
En las profundidades del universo, los núcleos de dos estrellas colapsadas se fusionan violentamente para emitir una explosión de la forma de luz más mortal y poderosa que existe, conocida como ray...
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Dos astronautas están sobre un asteroide, mirando un par de estrellas de neutrones, o los núcleos de estrellas colapsadas, chocar en la distancia. El resultado de la colisión son haces de luz brillantes y concentrados llamados rayos gamma. Los estallidos de rayos gamma evitan por poco impactar a los astronautas al ser emitidos desde la colisión.
Demonios de Rayos Gamma
In the depths of the universe, the cores of two collapsed stars violently merge to release a burst of the deadliest and most powerful form of light, known as gamma rays.
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Two astronauts are standing on an asteroid, watching a pair of neutron stars, or the cores of collapsed stars, collide in the distance. The result of the collision is bright, concentrated beams of light called gamma rays. The gamma ray bursts narrowly miss the astronauts as they shoot outward from the collision.
Gamma Ray Ghouls
Algo extraño y misterioso se arrastra por el cosmos. Los científicos lo llaman materia oscura. 
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Una red luminosa es visible en el cielo nocturno más allá del límite de un bosque. Dispersa entre los nodos de la red está la oscuridad, que denota la presencia de materia oscura. En el centro de la telaraña, la oscuridad se funde para crear la forma de una araña.
Materia Oscura
Something strange and mysterious creeps throughout the cosmos. Scientists call it dark matter.
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A luminous web is visible in the night sky beyond a treeline. Scattered between the nodes of the web is darkness, signifying the presence of dark matter. In the center of the web, the darkness melds to form the shape of a spider.
Dark Matter
¡Esta galaxia escalofriantemente encantada dejó de crear estrellas, de manera misteriosa, solo unos pocos miles de millones de años tras el Big Bang!
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Una estrella escarlata se cierne tras las ruinas de un exoplaneta que se asemeja en su forma a una calavera. Un brazo de galaxia rojo es visible en el fondo. Es evidente que esta galaxia, llamada MACS 2129-1, ha estado deteriorándose desde que dejó de producir estrellas solo unos pocos miles de millones de años después del Big Bang.
Cementerio Galáctico
This chillingly haunted galaxy mysteriously stopped making stars only a few billion years after the Big Bang!
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A scarlet star looms behind the ruins of an exoplanet that resembles the shape of a skull. A red galaxy arm is visible in the background. It is apparent that this galaxy, named MACS 2129-1, has been decaying since it stopped producing stars only a few billion years after the big bang.
Galactic Graveyard
Earth hasn’t always looked the same. Over billions of years, it has gone from orange dot, to a snowball to the blue orb we call home When we talk about "Earth-like" planets, that term can be very d...
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infographic showing Earth's evolution from pale, orange dot 3 billion years ago to ice planet, to the pale blue dot we know today
Planet Earth Through the Ages
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.
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This artist's rendering shows a type of gas giant planet known as a hot Jupiter that orbits very close to its star. Finding more of these youthful planets could help astronomers understand how they formed and if they migrate from cooler climes during their lifetimes.
Young Hot Jupiter
Estos tres mundos condenados estuvieron entre los primeros y más espeluznantes que se descubrieron mientras orbitaban su estrella no-muerta, conocida como un púlsar.
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A poster done in the style of movie posters from the 1950s and 1960s showing the zombie worlds with a colorful nebula and a planet being blasted by twin beams of radiation by the pulsar host star. The overall image creates the look of a scary skull.
Mundos Zombis
Ubicado a menos de 32 años luz de la Tierra, AU Microscopii se encuentra entre los sistemas planetarios más jóvenes jamás observados por los astrónomos, ¡y su estrella tiene unas brutales rabietas!
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Giant flares from a giant, bright young star in oranges, reds and bright yellow burst from the star, affecting a nearby planet. You can see the planet’s atmosphere being blasted away by the energy.
Llamaradas de Furia
Este planeta lejano puede parecer un refugio amigable… ¡pero no te dejes engañar! ¡El clima en este mundo es mortal! ¡El color azul cobalto del planeta proviene de una atmósfera brumosa e incendiar...
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A poster done in the style of a vintage poster for a horror movie. Reading "Rains of Terror" It's death by a million cuts on this slasher planet. Jagged edges of glass can be seen battering a spacecraft on this alien world.
Lluvia de Terror
Located less than 32 light-years from Earth, AU Microscopii is among the youngest planetary systems ever observed by astronomers, and its star throws vicious temper tantrums!
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Giant flares from a giant, bright young star in oranges, reds and bright yellow burst from the star, affecting a nearby planet. You can see the planet’s atmosphere being blasted away by the energy.
Flares of Fury Poster
Exoplanets, planets beyond our solar system, whether orbiting other stars or floating freely between them, can make the planets closer to home look tame by comparison.
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An infographic shows giant gas planet, a small, terrestrial planet, a planet bigger than Earth, but smaller than Newptune.
Exoplanet Types Infographic
Grab crayons, markers, paint or colored pencils and shade in the hues of rocky terrain, lava oceans and other amazing features of distant worlds beyond our solar system.
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Collection of coloring pages based on futuristic galactic travel destinations.
Exoplanet Travel Bureau Coloring Book
¿Qué colores iluminarían los primeros exoplanetas descubiertos?
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Es el primer planeta confirmado en orbitar una estrella similar al Sol, y marcó el comienzo de una nueva clase de planetas llamados "Júpiteres calientes": planetas masivos que orbitan extremadamente cerca de sus estrellas.
51 Pegasi b Página Para Colorear
¿Qué colores te imaginas en el mundo ultracaliente de 55 Cancri e?
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¡Un océano global de lava y cielos brillantes de silicato hacen de este mundo de ensueño el destino perfecto para vacaciones extremas!
55 Cancri e Página Para Colorear
¡Colorea este mundo! ¿Te imaginas un planeta rocoso o uno envuelto en gas y hielo?
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Sin embargo, una cosa es cierta: a ocho veces la masa de la Tierra, su atracción gravitacional es mucho, mucho más fuerte.
HD 40307 g Página Para Colorear
Si visitaras Kepler-16b, ¿qué colores crees que verías?
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Al igual que el planeta "Tatooine" de Luke Skywalker en Star Wars, Kepler-16b órbita un par de estrellas rojas y amarillas.
Kepler-16b Página Para Colorear
¿Qué tonos elegirás para colorear Kepler-186f?
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Si existiera vida vegetal en Kepler-186f, las hojas podrían ser tonos rojos para generar energía a partir de su fría estrella roja, muy diferente a la paleta de verdes de la Tierra bajo nuestro Sol amarillo.
Kepler-186f Página Para Colorear
¿Qué matices aparecerían bajo un sol rojo? ¿Qué colores te imaginas en el mundo ultracaliente de 55 Cancri e?  Si visitaras Kepler-16b, ¿qué colores crees que verías? ¿Qué tonos elegirás para colo...
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Spanish language exoplanet coloring book
Libro Para Colorear de Exoplanetas
¿Qué matices aparecerían bajo un sol rojo?
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Spanish language coloring page
TRAPPIST-1e Página Para Colorear
What colors would light up the first exoplanets discovered? Add your touch to the coloring page for 51 Pegasi b based on our popular Exoplanet Travel Bureau poster. 
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Add your touch to the coloring page for 51 Pegasi b based on our popular Exoplanet Travel Bureau poster that shows various post cards for first exoplanets discovered.
51 Pegasi b Coloring Page
What colors can you imagine on the ultrahot world of 55 Cancri e? Download the coloring page based on our popular Exoplanet Travel Bureau poster for the lava world.
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A coloring page for the exoplanet 55 Cancri e shows future visitors to the lava world in a bubble floating over an ocean of lava.
55 Cancri e Coloring Page
What tones will you pick to color Kepler-186f? Grab crayons, markers, paint or colored pencils and color in the coloring page based on our popular Exoplanet Travel Bureau poster for the planet with...
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A downloadable version of a coloring page for the Kepler-16b exoplanet travel poster.
Kepler-186f Coloring Page

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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Science Writer: Pat Brennan
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