SCIENCE ›
Skip Navigation
menu close modal

Multimedia

Rogue planet Valentine

Illustration of a rogue planet.

Rogue planets float freely through the universe, without the gravity of a star or planetary system to hold them in one place. You could say they're dancing among the stars.

Credit

NASA-JPL/Richard Barkus

ENLARGE

Related

This is an artist's impression of the view from the vicinity of a hypothetical terrestrial planet and moon orbiting the red dwarf star AU Microscopii.
More
The View from Within AU Microscopii's Disk
The View from Within AU Microscopii's Disk
For Valentine's Day, give the tight-knit Kepler-11 to your faves.
More
An illustration of an exoplanet Valentine.
Planetary System Valentine
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.
More
Full Focal Plane Image (First Light for Kepler Photometer) with labels
Full Focal Plane Image (First Light for Kepler Photometer) with labels
This artist's concept shows the closest known planetary system to our own-Epsilon Eridani. Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show that the system hosts two asteroid belts, in additio...
More
Double the Rubble
Double the Rubble
During the four years of science operations, the pointing precision of the spacecraft was controlled to within a few milli-arcseconds. That is the equivalent of keeping your gaze steady on a grain ...
More
Kepler's Precision Pointing
Kepler's Precision Pointing
Tell someone they're unique, with our Earth valentine.
More
Illustration of the Earth
Earth Valentine
Space telescopes have pioneered the discovery of planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy; even more powerful versions will measure these planets' atmospheres in the future.   
More
NASA’s array of technological marvels includes the Kepler Space Telescope, now retired, and its successor, TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, still operating on an extended mission. Both were built to hunt for those shadows – a tiny dip in starlight as an “exoplanet,” a planet beyond our solar system, crosses the face of its parent star. Finding exoplanet shadows is called the “transit” method.
The Searchers: How Will NASA Look for Signs of Life Beyond Earth?
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 an artist's concept of the star HD 3651 as it is orbited by a close-in Saturn-mass planetary companion and the distant brown dwarf companion discovered by Spitzer infrared photographs.
More
Brown Dwarf Companion
Brown Dwarf Companion
This infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope called a spectrum tells astronomers that a distant gas planet, a so-called "hot Jupiter" called HD 209458b, might be smothered with high cloud...
More
Cracking the Code of Faraway Worlds: an Exoplanet Atmosphere
Cracking the Code of Faraway Worlds: an Exoplanet Atmosphere
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...
More
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?
The diagram compares the planets of the inner solar system to Kepler-62, a five-planet system about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra.
More
Kepler-62 and the Solar System
Kepler-62 and the Solar System
Highlighted are 12 new planet candidates from the seventh Kepler planet candidate catalog that are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in the stars' habitable zone—the range of distances fr...
More
Twelve New Small Kepler Habitable Zone Candidates
Twelve New Small Kepler Habitable Zone Candidates
Astronomers detect lowest-mass planet around a star like the sun found using direct imaging techniques.
More
Image of gas giant GJ 504b (annotated)
Image of gas giant GJ 504b (annotated)
GJ1214b, shown in this artist's view, is a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth.
More
Artist's View of Extrasolar Planet GJ1214b
Artist's View of Extrasolar Planet GJ1214b
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a visible light view of the outer dust around the young star HD100546. The position of the newly discovered protoplanet is marked with an o...
More
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope view of the dust disc around the young star HD 100546
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope view of the dust disc around the young star HD 100546
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.
More
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
This artist's illustration shows the atmosphere of a brown dwarf called 2MASSJ22282889-431026, which was observed simultaneously by NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes.
More
Anatomy of Brown Dwarf's Atmosphere
Anatomy of Brown Dwarf's Atmosphere
The third closest star system to the sun, called WISE J104915.57-531906, is at the center of the larger image, which was taken by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). It appeared to b...
More
Brown Dwarfs in our 'Backyard'
Brown Dwarfs in our 'Backyard'
This infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope tells astronomers that a distant gas planet, a so-called "hot Jupiter" called HD 209458b, might be smothered with high clouds. It is one of th...
More
Cracking the Code of Faraway Worlds: an Exoplanet Atmosphere
Cracking the Code of Faraway Worlds: an Exoplanet Atmosphere
An artist's concept of brilliant auroras on the brown dwarf LSR J1835+3259, a misfit failed star about 18.5 light-years from Earth.
More
Brown Dwarf Aurora
Brown Dwarf Aurora
Large gas-giant planets like Jupiter may be more rare in the galaxy than small, rocky worlds like Earth.
More
Where are the Giants?
Where are the Giants?
Twice as big in volume as the Earth, HD 40307 g straddles the line between "Super-Earth" and "mini-Neptune" and scientists aren't sure if it has a rocky surface or one that's buried beneath thick l...
More
HD 40307 g, a super earth exoplanet is on a poster featuring a skin diver without a parachute.
Experience the Gravity of a Super-Earth
An international team of scientists discovered more than 100 planets based on images from Kepler operating in the ‘K2 Mission’.
More
Image montage showing the Maunakea Observatories, Kepler Space Telescope, and night sky with K2 Fields and discovered planetary systems (dots) overlaid.
NASA's Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission
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!
More
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

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