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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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Large gas-giant planets like Jupiter may be more rare in the galaxy than small, rocky worlds like Earth.
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Where are the Giants?
Where are the Giants?
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.
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Mars-size Kepler-138b Gets a Mass
Mars-size Kepler-138b Gets a Mass
Video of the LBTI instrument's view of the sky.
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Video of the LBTI instrument's view of the sky.
Video of the LBTI instrument's view of the sky.
Orbiting planets cause stars to wobble in space, changing the color of the light astronomers observe.
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Radial Velocity videos
Radial Velocity
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
This artist's conception depicts the Kepler-10 star system, located about 560 light-years away.
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Kepler-10 Stellar Family Portrait
Kepler-10 Stellar Family Portrait
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 (annotated)
Image of gas giant GJ 504b (annotated)
Our Sun is just one out of over 200 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The Sun is located in the Orion arm of our galaxy about 25,000 light years from the center of the Galaxy. Kepler will...
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Kepler's View of the Galaxy
Kepler's View of the Galaxy
This artist's concept shows how astronomers use the unique orbit of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and a depth-perceiving trick called parallax to determine the distance of dark planets, black hole...
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Depth Perception in Space
Depth Perception in Space
The first Earth-size planet discovered around a near solar twin, the discovery of Kepler-452b brings us closer than ever to finding an Earth-like planet.
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Infographic: Profile of planet Kepler-452b
Infographic: Profile of planet Kepler-452b
When a planet crosses directly between us and its star, we see the star dim slightly because the planet is blocking out a portion of the light. We can make a plot called a light curve with the brig...
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Visualization of how the light from a star dims a bit when a planet crosses in front of it.
Transit Light Curve
This animated slide explains and illustrates the astronomical objects present throughout the universe stretching from our solar system outward.
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An animation showing moving elements of a slide depicting different astronomical objects throughout the universe from our solar system outward.
Astronomical Objects Through the History of the Universe
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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Full Focal Plane Image (First Light for Kepler Photometer) with labels
Full Focal Plane Image (First Light for Kepler Photometer) with labels
The Kepler spacecraft, responsible for thousands of new potential disoveries.
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Kepler Spacecraft
Kepler Spacecraft
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)
When we talk about the enormity of the cosmos, it’s easy to toss out big numbers – but far more difficult to wrap our minds around just how large, how far and how numerous celestial bodies really a...
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A video explaining a light-year, how big our galaxy is and how far away exoplanets, the planets beyond our solar system really are.
Our Milky Way Galaxy: How Big is Space?
This artist's concept shows the searing-hot gas planet WASP-12b (orange orb) and its star.
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Hot, Carbon-Rich Planet
Hot, Carbon-Rich Planet
How do astronomers take actual pictures of exoplanets, and why is it such a difficult thing to do? Josh from PlanetQuest talks about what's involved in making an exoplanet portrait.
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Q&Alien talks Direct Imaging
Q&Alien talks Direct Imaging
This slide illustrates how planets form from dust over a few hundred million years inside protoplanetary disks. Steps illustrated in this slide include planetesimal, protoplanets, giant, and rocky ...
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an illustration of how planets form from dust over a few hundred million years
Planet Formation
Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that a planet orbiting a distant star that may have lost its atmosphere but gained a second one through volcanic activity.
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GJ 1132 b’s hot interior, the team believes means the planet’s cooler, overlying crust is extremely thin, perhaps only hundreds of feet thick. That’s much too feeble to support anything resembling volcanic mountains. Its flat terrain may also be cracked like an eggshell due to tidal flexing. Hydrogen and other gases could be released through such cracks.
Hubble Finds Evidence that a New Atmosphere May Have Formed on a Rocky Exoplanet (no text)
Audience: 3rd grade and older Asteroids move much faster than airplanes; and are also much bigger.
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This slide illustrates how asteroids move much faster than airplanes; and are also much bigger.
Speed Comparison – Jet Airliner vs. Small Astronomical Bodies
A dusty planetary system (left) is compared to another system with little dust in this artist concept. Dust can make it difficult for telescopes to image planets because light from the dust can out...
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Seeking Planets in the Dust (Artist's Concept)
Seeking Planets in the Dust (Artist's Concept)
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
The flower you see in this picture isn’t NASA’s attempt to celebrate the coming of spring. It’s actually the latest design in a cutting-edge effort to take pictures of planets orbiting stars far fr...
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Flower power: NASA starshade petal prototype
Flower power: NASA starshade petal prototype
Every star has a habitable zone, but where that zone lies is different for stars of different sizes and brightness.
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There's a helpful concept we use for the distance from a star where you might find planets with liquid water on their surfaces – water being essential for life as we know it. It's called the habitable zone. Every star has one, but they're not all equal.
Video: What Is the Habitable Zone?

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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What is an Exoplanet?

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