Skip Navigation
menu close modal

Multimedia

The Earth-like Planet Gliese 581c (Artist's Impression)

The Earth-like Planet Gliese 581c (Artist's Impression)

Artist's impression of the five-Earth mass planet, Gliese 581 c, found in the habitable zone around the red dwarf Gliese 581, with the instrument HARPS on the ESO 3.6-m telescope.

Credit

ESO

ENLARGE

Related

This infographic explains how NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope can be used in tandem with a telescope on the ground to measure the distances to planets discovered using the "microlensing" technique.
More
Infographic: Finding Planets With Microlensing
Infographic: Finding Planets With Microlensing
This animation shows the first-ever map of the surface of an exoplanet, or a planet beyond our solar system.
More
Spitzer Maps an Exoplanet
Spitzer Maps an Exoplanet
This closeup of an image captured by the SOFI instrument on ESOs New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory shows the free-floating planet CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9 in infrared light.
More
The free-floating planet CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9
The free-floating planet CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9
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...
More
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
Researchers using data from NASA's Kepler space telescope have shown that migrating planets stop their inward journey before reaching their stars, as illustrated in this artist's concept.
More
On the Road Toward a Star, Planets Halt Their Migration (Artist Concept)
On the Road Toward a Star, Planets Halt Their Migration (Artist Concept)
This plot compares the colors of solar system planets to the color of the hot-Jupiter-class planet HD 189733b.
More
Visible-light Color of Planets Plot
Visible-light Color of Planets Plot
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)
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. 
More
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.
Distant Planet May Be On Its Second Atmosphere, NASA's Hubble Finds
Artist's representation of the "habitable zone," the range of orbits where liquid water is permitted on the surface of a planet.
More
Odds are on Oodles of Earths
Odds are on Oodles of Earths
This size and scale of the Kepler-452 system compared alongside the Kepler-186 system and the solar system.
More
Kepler-452 and the Solar System
Kepler-452 and the Solar System
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)
This chart shows most of the stars visible with the unaided eye on a clear night. The star Alpha Centauri is one of the brightest stars in the southern sky (marked with a red circle). It lies just ...
More
Alpha Centauri in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur)
Alpha Centauri in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur)
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...
More
Depth Perception in Space
Depth Perception in Space
The conception illustration depicts how solar pressure can be used to balance NASA's Kepler spacecraft, keeping the telescope stable enough to continue monitoring distant stars in search of transit...
More
Kepler's Second Light: How K2 Will Work
Kepler's Second Light: How K2 Will Work
This is an artist's concept of HD 189733b and its parent star.
More
Extrasolar Planet's Hazy Atmosphere (Artist's Concept)
Extrasolar Planet's Hazy Atmosphere (Artist's Concept)
The distribution of Kepler planet candidates by size as of January 2015.
More
Kepler Planet Candidates, January 2015
Kepler Planet Candidates, January 2015
This is a temperature map of the "hot Jupiter" class exoplanet WASP 43b. The white-colored region on the daytime side is 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit. The nighttime side temperatures drop to under 1,00...
More
NASA Hubble Maps the Temperature and Water Vapor on an Extreme Exoplanet
NASA Hubble Maps the Temperature and Water Vapor on an Extreme Exoplanet
This graph shows the brightness variations of the brown dwarf named 2MASSJ22282889-431026 measured simultaneously by both NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes.
More
Probing Brown Dwarf Layers
Probing Brown Dwarf Layers
An artist’s impression showing a newly discovered Jupiter twin gas giant orbiting the solar twin star, HIP 11915. The planet is of a very similar mass to Jupiter and orbits at the same distance fro...
More
Artist’s Impression of a Jupiter twin orbiting HIP 11915
Artist’s Impression of a Jupiter twin orbiting HIP 11915
Learn more about how to use the basic functions of Eyes on Exoplanets
More
Eyes on Exoplanets Tutorial 1: The Basics
Eyes on Exoplanets Tutorial 1: The Basics
Launched in March 2009, NASA’s first planet-hunter confirmed more than 2,600 planets beyond our solar system. "Many stars have planets. A lot of these planets are Earth-sized. That's Kepler's legac...
More
Video documentary about the legacy of the Kepler space telescope.
Kepler End of Flight Documentary
This image shows the HR 8799 planets with starlight optically suppressed and data processing conducted to remove residual starlight. The star is at the center of the blackened circle in the image. ...
More
Planetary Family Portrait
Planetary Family Portrait
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
The Kepler photometer is lowered onto the spacecraft in a clean room.
More
Kepler Photometer Being Lowered onto Spacecraft
Kepler Photometer Being Lowered onto Spacecraft
This artist concept depicts "multiple-transiting planet systems," which are stars with more than one planet. The planets eclipse, or transit, their host stars from the vantage point of the observer...
More
Star System Bonanza
Star System Bonanza

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