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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.

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ESO

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Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have taken the first ever image of the snow line in an infant planetary system.
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TW Hydrae snow line distance compared to the Solar System
TW Hydrae snow line distance compared to the Solar System
The artistic concept compares Earth (left) to the new planet, called Kepler-452b, which is about 60 percent larger. The illustration represents one possible appearance for Kepler-452b -- scientists do not know whether the planet has oceans and continents like Earth.
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Comparison between Earth and Kepler-452b and their host stars
Comparison between Earth and Kepler-452b and their host stars
Astronomers have discovered two gas giant planets orbiting stars in the Beehive cluster, a collection of about 1,000 tightly packed stars.
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Starry Starry Skies (Artist's Concept)
Starry Starry Skies (Artist's Concept)
Today Kepler-452b is receiving 10 percent more energy from its parent star than the Earth is from the Sun. If Kepler-452b had the same mass as Earth it would be on the verge of experiencing the runaway greenhouse effect and the loss of its water inventory.
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A Window Into Time
A Window Into Time
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 of salt from a quarter mile away.
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Kepler's Precision Pointing
Kepler's Precision Pointing
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 object glows with a reddish color.
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Artist's rendering of the "super-Jupiter" Kappa Andromedae b
Artist's rendering of the "super-Jupiter" Kappa Andromedae b
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 previously unknown planet using this method. No other technique could have found the unseen companion.
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An Invisible World
An Invisible World
Celebrate Valetine's Day with a hot Jupiter that tightly hugs its star.
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A Valentine for a Hot Jupiter
Hot Jupiter Valentine
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
Image of gas giant GJ 504b
This image from NASA's Kepler spacecraft shows the telescope's field of view taken in a new demonstration mode in late October. A new mission concept, dubbed K2, would continue Kepler's search for other worlds, and introduce new opportunities to observe star clusters, young and old stars, active galaxies and supernovae.
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NASA Kepler's Second Light
NASA Kepler's Second Light
Over its ten years in space, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has evolved into a premier tool for studying exoplanets.
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Spitzer: 10 years of surprises
Spitzer: 10 years of surprises
This artist's conception illustrates Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star's habitable zone - the region around a star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist.
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Kepler-22b: Closer to Finding Another Earth
Kepler-22b: Closer to Finding Another Earth
This plot shows data obtained from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, or OGLE, telescope located in Chile, during a "microlensing" event. Microlensing events occur when one star passes another, and the gravity of the foreground star causes the distant star's light to magnify and brighten. This magnification is evident in the plot, as both Spitzer and OGLE register an increase in the star's brightness.
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Time Delay in Microlensing Event
Time Delay in Microlensing Event
This artist's concept shows "The Behemoth," an enormous comet-like cloud of hydrogen bleeding off of a warm, Neptune-sized planet just 30 light-years from Earth. Also depicted is the parent star (a faint red dwarf) of expolanet GJ 436.
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"Behemoth" Bleeding Atmosphere Around a Warm Exoplanet
"Behemoth" Bleeding Atmosphere Around a Warm Exoplanet
Watch what happens in the life of a star and its planets. This version of the video has no text overlays.
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Life and Death of a Planetary System
Life and Death of a Planetary System: No Text
During 9.6 years in orbit, the Kepler space telescope observed more than half a million stars and discovered more than 2,600 planets. See the mission by the numbers.
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Kepler was in orbit 9.6 years, used 3.12 gallons of fuel, observed 530,506 stars and led to the discovery of 2,662 planets.
NASA's Kepler Mission By the Numbers
This artist's conception shows the silhouette of a rocky planet, dubbed HD 219134b, as it passes in front of its star.
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Little Black Spot on the Star Today (Artist's Concept)
Little Black Spot on the Star Today (Artist's Concept)
For the first time, astronomers have been able to directly follow the motion of an exoplanet as it moves to the other side of its host star. The planet has the smallest orbit so far of all directly imaged exoplanets, lying as close to its host star as Saturn is to the Sun.
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Exoplanet Caught on the Move
Exoplanet Caught on the Move
Keep your Valentine close with a tidally-locked planet, that always faces its star.
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Illustration of a tidally-locked planet.
Tidally-locked Valentine
Close-up of the planet Fomalhaut b as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. Fomalhaut b was discovered in Hubble data in 2008.
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HST ACS/HRC Wide View of Fomalhaut b Planet in 2004 and 2006
HST ACS/HRC Wide View of Fomalhaut b Planet in 2004 and 2006
This diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-47, a double-star system containing two planets, one orbiting in the so-called "habitable zone." This is the sweet spot in a planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of a planet.
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Orbiting in the Habitable Zone of Two Suns
Orbiting in the Habitable Zone of Two Suns
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.
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Kepler-62 and the Solar System
Kepler-62 and the Solar System
This artist's conception compares the KOI-961 planetary system to Jupiter and the largest four of its many moons. Image credit: Caltech
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KOI-961 and its three known planets
KOI-961 and its three known planets
First we learned the Earth was round. Then we found out we were not at the center of the cosmos, just another planet orbiting the sun...
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A Whole New Universe
A Whole New Universe
This artist's concept depicts Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone -- a range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the planet's surface. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that Earth-size planets exist in the habitable zones of other stars and signals a significant step closer to finding a world similar to Earth.
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Kepler-186f, the First Earth-size Planet in the Habitable Zone (Artist's Concept)
Kepler-186f, the First Earth-size Planet in the Habitable Zone (Artist's Concept)

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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