Skip Navigation
menu close modal

Multimedia

Increasing the Odds of the Sweep

Increasing the Odds of the Sweep

Artist's impression of a transiting Jupiter-mass exoplanet around a star slightly more massive than the Sun, such as the one discovered around SWEEPS-04.

Credit

ESO

ENLARGE

Related

This 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 (annotated)
The free-floating planet CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9 (annotated)
NASA's Kepler mission has discovered 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 confirmed planets. These discoveries nearly double the number of verified Kepler planets and triple the number of stars know...
More
NASA's Kepler announces 11 new planetary systems
NASA's Kepler announces 11 new planetary systems
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
Audience: 3rd grade and older This slide shows how far the planets are from their respective stars and how that influences how hot they are.
More
This slide shows how far the planets are from their respective stars and how that influences how hot they are.
Comparison of Exoplanets Locations
This artist's concept shows the Kepler spacecraft.
More
Kepler in Space (Artist Concept)
Kepler in Space (Artist Concept)
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...
More
Seeking Planets in the Dust (Artist's Concept)
Seeking Planets in the Dust (Artist's Concept)
Do other planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, also host life forms?
More
In the Zone: How Scientists Search for Habitable Planets
In the Zone: How Scientists Search for Habitable Planets
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
NASA's Kepler spacecraft has spotted a planet that alternately runs late and early in its orbit because a second, "invisible" world is tugging on it. This is the first definite detection of a previ...
More
An Invisible World
An Invisible World
More than three-quarters of the planet candidates discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft have sizes ranging from that of Earth to that of Neptune, which is nearly four times as big as Earth. Such p...
More
Kepler Planet Candidates, January 2014
Kepler Planet Candidates, January 2014
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
The diversity of exoplanets is large — more than 800 planets outside the Solar System have been found to date, with thousands more waiting to be confirmed.
More
An Exoplanet Seen From Its Moon
An Exoplanet Seen From Its Moon
Cluster of Stars in Kepler's Sight - This image zooms into a small portion of Kepler's full field of view -- an expansive, 100-square-degree patch of sky in our Milky Way galaxy.
More
Star Cluster NGC 6791 from Kepler First Light Image
Star Cluster NGC 6791 from Kepler First Light Image
The timeline series includes a compilation of artist's concepts depicting milestones from the Kepler mission-NASA's first mission capable of detecting Earth-size planets around sun-like stars.
More
Kepler Timeline
Kepler Timeline
Transit data are rich with information. By measuring the depth of the dip in brightness and knowing the size of the star, scientists can determine the size or radius of the planet. The orbital peri...
More
Light Curve of a Planet Transiting Its Star
Light Curve of a Planet Transiting Its Star
Audience: 3rd grade and older This slide compares the difference in size between planets in our solar system and with three kinds of exoplanets: Super Earth,  Neptunian and Gas Giants.
More
This slide compares the difference in size between planets in our solar system and with three kinds of exoplanets: Super Earth, Neptunian and Gas Giants.
Comparison of Planet Sizes: Exoplanets
This image shows an Earth-like "exomoon" orbiting a gas giant planet in a star's habitable zone.
More
Habitable exomoon
Habitable exomoon
At only four light-years away, Proxima b is our closest known exoplanet neighbor.
More
An interactive 3D planet model of Proxima b.
Proxima b 3D Model
From the first three years of Kepler data, more than 3,500 potential worlds have emerged.
More
Residential Candidates
Residential Candidates
PSO J318.5-22 belongs to a special class of planets called rogue, or free-floating, planets. Wandering alone in the galaxy, they do not orbit a parent star.  These rogue planets glow faintly from t...
More
PSO J318.5-22
Where the Nightlife Never Ends
These doomed worlds were among the first and creepiest to be discovered. They orbit an undead star known as a pulsar. 
More
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.
Zombie Worlds Poster
The "super-Jupiter" Kappa Andromedae b, shown here in an artist's rendering, circles its star at nearly twice the distance that Neptune orbits the sun. With a mass about 13 times Jupiter's, the obj...
More
Artist's rendering of the "super-Jupiter" Kappa Andromedae b
Artist's rendering of the "super-Jupiter" Kappa Andromedae b
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.
More
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)
NASA's Kepler mission revealed that there are more planets than stars in our galaxy. It opened our eyes to diverse worlds – some entirely unlike planets found in our solar system.
More
Video detailing the science highlights of NASA's Kepler space telescope.
Kepler's Science Results
An artist's conception of Kepler-78b orbiting its parent star once every 8.5 hours.
More
Kepler-78b
Kepler-78b

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