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...

This animated slide explains and illustrates the astronomical objects present throughout the universe stretching from our solar system outward.

The flower you see in this animation 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 ...

Exoplanets can be pretty weird places, but do their names have to be so weird, too? Watch and learn how the scientific community determines and categorizes these unique planets.

Animation of the Kepler spacecraft ejecting its dust cover.

Within our own solar system we can observe planetary transits of Mercury and Venus when they pass in front of the Sun as viewed from Earth. Kepler will observe the same phenomena in order to detect...

Kepler focal plane assembly in a clean room.

Of the more than 1,000 verified planets found by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, eight are less than twice Earth-size and in their stars' habitable zone. All eight orbit stars cooler and smaller tha...

Observed transit depths and theoretical models for GJ 1214 b

This artist's conception shows a young, hypothetical planet around a cool star. A soupy mix of potentially life-forming chemicals can be seen pooling around the base of the jagged rocks.

This slide explains the transit method for exoplanet detection.

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 ...

Over its ten years in space, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has evolved into a premier tool for studying exoplanets.

Ball Aerospace team assembles Kepler spacecraft

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.

Overview of Kepler mission

NASA Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen and TESS Project Scientist Padi Boyd discuss Kepler's legacy, the search for life and the big question: Are we alone?

Learn more about how to use the basic functions of Eyes on Exoplanets

A team of researchers has devised a way to measure the internal properties of stars—a method that offers more accurate assessments of their orbiting planets.

Animation of HAT-P-7 light curve showing both large transit dip and small occultation dip.

Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that a planet orbiting a distant star may have lost its atmosphere but gained a second one through volcanic activity. 

The star appears to blink in a pattern. It dims like clockwork as six "hands" of differing size orbit around it at different rates.

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...

This graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows how astronomers located a hot spot on a distant gas planet named upsilon Andromedae b -- and learned that it was in the wrong place.

A possible newfound planet spins through a clearing in a nearby star's dusty, planet-forming disc.