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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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In the depths of the universe, the cores of two collapsed stars violently merge to release a burst of the deadliest and most powerful form of light, known as gamma rays.
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Two astronauts are standing on an asteroid, watching a pair of neutron stars, or the cores of collapsed stars, collide in the distance. The result of the collision is bright, concentrated beams of light called gamma rays. The gamma ray bursts narrowly miss the astronauts as they shoot outward from the collision.
Gamma Ray Ghouls
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...
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Kepler Planet Candidates, January 2014
Kepler Planet Candidates, January 2014
Planet Janssen, or 55 Cancri e, orbits a star called Copernicus only 41 light years away. 
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An artistic illustration of the surface of 55 Cancri e showing a couple in a protective bubble, suspended by a futuristic balloon over a global surface of lava, under dark, sparkling skies.
55 Cancri e: Skies Sparkle Above a Never-Ending Ocean of Lava
This image from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) shows the newly discovered planet HD95086 b, next to its parent star.
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VLT image of exoplanet HD 95086 b
VLT image of exoplanet HD 95086 b
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 plot of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope indicates the presence of molecules in the planet WASP-12b -- a super-hot gas giant that orbits tightly around its star.
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Signature of a Carbon-Rich Planet
Signature of a Carbon-Rich Planet
This shows the first planet to be confirmed as an exoplanet, 51 Pegasi b, and the newest Earth-sized planet confirmed.
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Twenty Years of Progress
Twenty Years of Progress
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...
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Depth Perception in Space
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A unique feature of the seventh Kepler candidate catalog is that it is the first to fully automate the assessment of transit-like signals. The total height of each bar shows the total number of Kep...
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Assessment of Kepler Dataset
Assessment of Kepler Dataset
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
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.
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Chemical Soups Around Cool Stars
Chemical Soups Around Cool Stars
This graphic shows Kepler-76b's orbit around a yellow-white, type F star located 2,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
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Kepler-76b's transiting orbit
Kepler-76b's transiting orbit
From the first three years of Kepler data, more than 3,500 potential worlds have emerged.
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Residential Candidates
Residential Candidates
Do other planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, also host life forms?
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In the Zone: How Scientists Search for Habitable Planets
In the Zone: How Scientists Search for Habitable Planets
Twenty years ago astronomers discovered the first planet around a sun-like star, 51 Pegasi b. This is the story of the pioneers in planet-hunting and how those who have followed are now poised to a...
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The Search for Another Earth
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This composite image represents the close environment of Beta Pictoris as seen in near infrared light. This very faint environment is revealed after a very careful subtraction of the much brighter ...
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Beta Pictoris as Seen in Infrared Light
Beta Pictoris as Seen in Infrared Light
This artist's concept illustrates the idea that rocky, terrestrial worlds like the inner planets in our Solar System may be plentiful, and diverse, in the Universe.
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Rocky, Terrestrial Worlds
Rocky, Terrestrial Worlds
This artist's concept illustrates how planetary systems arise out of massive collisions between rocky bodies.
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The Rocky World of Young Planetary Systems
The Rocky World of Young Planetary Systems
The artistic impression shows NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft operating in a new mission profile called K2.
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Reborn Kepler Can Still Find Planets
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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
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The orbit of a planet can cause a star to wobble around in space in relation to nearby stars in the sky.
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Astrometry videos
Astrometry
The artist's concept depicts Kepler-62f, a super-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, located about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation L...
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An artist's illustration of Kepler-64b or PH1, a planet discovered by volunteers from the Planet Hunters citizen science project. PH1, shown in the foreground, is the first reported case of a plane...
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Kepler-64b: Four Star Planet
Kepler-64b: Four Star Planet
Observed transit depths and theoretical models for GJ 1214 b
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Observed transit for GJ 1214 b
Observed transit for GJ 1214 b
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have made the first direct detection of the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a star outside our solar system. The planet orbits a yellow, Sun-like star c...
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HD 209458b
HD 209458b

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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