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Kepler Full Focal Plane Image - Inverted

Kepler Full Focal Plane Image - Inverted

Inverted image (dark stars on light sky) Stars in the image are all brighter than magnitude 18.5. Stars brighter than 11.5 are "saturated" (all look the same brightness in the image).

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NASA/Kepler mission

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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...
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An Invisible World
An Invisible World
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...
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Brown Dwarfs in our 'Backyard'
Brown Dwarfs in our 'Backyard'
These computer-generated images chart the development of severe weather patterns on the highly eccentric exoplanet HD 80606b during the days after its closest approach to its parent star.
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Severe Exoplanetary Storm
Severe Exoplanetary Storm
Hubble finds a deep-blue exoplanet that may feature pummeling showers of glass rain moving at 4,500 mph. Care to visit?
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NASA's Hubble Finds a True Blue Planet
NASA's Hubble Finds a True Blue Planet
This is an artist's concept of HD 189733b and its parent star.
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Extrasolar Planet's Hazy Atmosphere (Artist's Concept)
Extrasolar Planet's Hazy Atmosphere (Artist's Concept)
A truly doomed planet, WASP-12b is being cannibalized by its star.
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It's a Star-Eat-Planet World
It's a Star-Eat-Planet World
For a tidally locked planet there is no day or night, only freezing darkness on one side and burning constant sunlight on the other. The terminator zone is bathed in constant twilight and would lik...
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Earth at Twilight
Tidally locked planets (Earth at Twilight)
First light image from two of the CCD modules of the Kepler mission.
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Kepler first light image: 2 CCD modules
Kepler first light image: 2 CCD modules
This artist's animation flies through the Kepler-20 star system, where NASA's Kepler mission discovered the first Earth-size planets around a star beyond our own.
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Kepler-20e -- The Smallest Exoplanet (Artist's Concept)
Kepler-20e -- The Smallest Exoplanet (Artist's Concept)
The telescope studied comets and asteroids, counted stars, scrutinized planets and galaxies, and discovered soccer-ball-shaped carbon spheres in space called buckyballs.
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Spitzer Space Telescope
Spitzer Space Telescope
This artist's animation shows a celestial body about the size of our moon slamming at great speed into a body the size of Mercury.
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Planetary Demolition Derby
Planetary Demolition Derby
How do coronagraphs find exoplanets? Find out in this animation narrated by Dr. Nick Siegler, Technology Manager of the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program.
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The Search for Alien Earths - How Coronagraphs Find Hidden Planets
The Search for Alien Earths - How Coronagraphs Find Hidden Planets
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...
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Twelve New Small Kepler Habitable Zone Candidates
Twelve New Small Kepler Habitable Zone Candidates
This artist's conception illustrates a storm of comets around a star near our own, called Eta Corvi. Evidence for this barrage comes from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, whose infrared detectors pi...
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It's Raining Comets
It's Raining Comets
This artist's concept depicts an itsy bitsy planetary system -- so compact, in fact, that it's more like Jupiter and its moons than a star and its planets.
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Kepler's Mini Planetary System
Kepler's Mini Planetary System
This disintegrating planet is an endangered species.
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Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
An artist’s impression of a transiting exoplanet, named 'HD 189733b' - the first exoplanet found to have water vapor in its atmosphere.
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Water, water everywhere - on an extrasolar planet
Water, water everywhere - on an extrasolar planet
This illustration shows the unusual orbit of planet Kepler-413b around a close pair of orange and red dwarf stars. The planet's 66-day orbit is tilted 2.5 degrees with respect to the plane of the b...
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Wobbly Planet Orbital Schematic (Illustration)
Wobbly Planet Orbital Schematic (Illustration)
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 run...
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A Window Into Time
A Window Into Time
Astronomers were surprised to see these data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in January 2013, showing a huge eruption of dust around a star called NGC 2547-ID8. In this plot, infrared brightnes...
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Witnessing a Planetary Wreckage
Witnessing a Planetary Wreckage
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 th...
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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)
This artist’s impression shows how the newly discovered super-Earth surrounding the nearby star GJ1214 may look.
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GJ1214b
GJ1214b
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 (annotated)
Image of gas giant GJ 504b (annotated)
Astronomers have discovered a transiting exoplanet with the longest known year. Located beyond the "snow line" this planet may give clues about planetary migration.
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Transiting Exoplanet with Longest Known Year
Transiting Exoplanet with Longest Known Year
Planets having atmospheres rich in helium may be common in our galaxy, according to a new theory based on data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. These planets would be around the mass of Neptune...
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Helium-Shrouded Planets (Artist's Concept)
Helium-Shrouded Planets (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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