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Exoplanet Exploration

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slide 1 - Four distinct cartoon characters stand in a line, none of them resemble existing, real animal species and they do not belong to a specific gender.

Meet the Exoplaneteers

Four brave explorers, the Captain, the Brain, the Scout, and the Friend, find themselves flung across the galaxy onto different exoplanets. Read more ›

slide 2 - The surface of the rocky, terrestrial exoplanet Trappist-1e is depicted in shades of blue and purple and in a bold, cartoon style. Other planets from the Trappist system can be seen in the night sky and the landscape is a mix of small mountains, rocks, and some blue spots that allude to the possibility that there could be water on the planet's surface.

Quiz

What Kind of Explorer Are You?

Take our fun quiz to find out and get the perfect planet for you! Read more ›

slide 3 - llustration shows Earth's Sun swollen into its red-giant phase billions of years from now. The Sun itself is a fiery red orange, and four planets – our solar system's inner planets – can be seen as crescents being consumed by the swollen Sun, their atmospheres beginning to be blown away into diffuse trails behind them.

Finding Life Beyond Earth: What Comes Next?

New technologies are expected to intensity the search for life beyond Earth in the years ahead; the final story in our series considers the future – and far future – in the search for habitable worlds. Read more ›

slide 4 - As if in orbit, we see in this illustration the limb of a distant planet, dark as if on the night-side, in the foreground, with blobs and streams of artificial light on the surface. In the middle of the image, with the planet below, is the planet’s star – its sun – just at the edge of the planet, which stretches on a curve all the way across the image. Above the planet and star is the dark of space.

Searching for Signs of Intelligent Life: Technosignatures

The search for life beyond Earth includes looking for evidence of advanced technology – radio or light signals, or even large-scale engineering. Read more ›

slide 5 - View from above shows early Earth as it might have looked when life first formed. Dusky colors include a dull green and tan foreground with rocks, a river and small vernal ponds glinting in the sunlight. Above the horizon is a gray-blue sky with long, slanting clouds of yellow-tan.

'Life' in the Lab

Intensive laboratory research seeks to unravel some of the universe's biggest mysteries: how life began on Earth, and how it might begin on other worlds. Read more ›

Exoplanets

Last update: July 31, 2023

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Confirmed

Planets that have been validated by two or more discovery methods.
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NASA Candidates

NASA mission discoveries that could be planets, but are unconfirmed.
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Planetary Systems

The number of stars with confirmed planets.

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Glossary FAQ

News and Features

How did we get here? How do stars and planets come into being? What happens during a star’s life, and what fate will its planets meet when it dies? Come along on this interstellar journey through time.

Pillars of creation seen in an animation.

Life and Death of a Planetary System

Astronomers capture a direct image of a multi-planet system around a Sun-like star, the first of its kind.

A small bright star is seen with two smaller bright exoplanets.

Discovery Alert: Two Planets Orbit a Sun-like Star

When we talk about the enormity of the cosmos, it’s hard to wrap our minds around just how large, how far and how numerous celestial bodies really are. Also, what's a light-year anyway? Our video can help!

How Big Is Space?

How Big Is Space?

Open a window on the worlds of the solar system and beyond — right from your own home — with videos, VR tours, podcasts and hands-on activities for the whole family.

graphic of a house and the Moon with the words NASA at Home

Let NASA Bring the Universe into Your Home

Grab crayons, paint or colored pencils and shade in the hues of rocky terrain, lava oceans and more with our downloadable exoplanet coloring book in English and Spanish.

Two cute children coloring exoplanet pages

Color With NASA

Check out our interactive spacecraft model and see the latest stats from the mission.

NASA's space telescope, the Exoplanet hunting TESS is seen in space.

Explore TESS, NASA's Latest Planet Hunter

With new NASA apps, you can take a selfie in space or tour a system of alien planets.

NASA Selfie app shows a golden retriever in an astronaut suit.

Share Space Selfies and Tour Exoplanet Surfaces

The seven Earth-size planets of TRAPPIST-1 are all mostly made of rock, with some having the potential to hold more water than Earth, according to a new study published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Illustration of TRAPPIST-1 planets

New clues to compositions of TRAPPIST-1 planets

New results from the 229th American Astronomical Society meeting reveal that Earth-sized planets can be made of minerals that are distinctly not Earth-like.

An artist's rendition of the interior compositions of planets around the stars Kepler 102 and Kepler 407.

Can garnet planets be habitable?

The ASTERIA satellite, currently in low-Earth orbit, is only slightly larger than a box of cereal, but it could help astrophysicists study planets orbiting other stars.

Images from the ISS of ASTERIA deploying

Astrophysics CubeSat demonstrates big potential in a small package

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite sent back a stunning sequence of serendipitous images showing the motion of a comet.

Black and white image of a comet

NASA’s planet-hunting TESS catches a comet before starting science

Scientists used NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to find water "fingerprints" in the atmosphere of a hot, bloated, Saturn-mass exoplanet some 700 light-years away.

Illustration of a gas giant orbiting its star

NASA finds a large amount of water in an exoplanet's atmosphere

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which will scan the skies to look for planets beyond our solar system—known as exoplanets—is now in Florida to begin preparations for launch in April.

Illustration of an exoplanet

10 things: Exoplanets 101

A star among planet hunters, Natalie Batalha wields a formidable weapon: NASA’s Kepler space telescope.

Natalie Batalha

Role models, footsteps, and the search for life

A giant 'Tatooine' discovered by NASA's Kepler mission is the largest world yet discovered that circles two stars.

Kepler illustration

New planet is largest discovered that orbits two suns

A discovery one-ups Tatooine by finding twin stars which host three giant exoplanets.

Illustration of three pink gas planets orbiting two stars.

Three giant worlds found orbiting twin suns

The Exoplanet Exploration website won its first People's Voice Award in the Weird category.

Photo of a Webby award

NASA web sites, social media honored in 2018 Webby Awards

NASA's efforts in digital communications have been recognized with nominations for six Webby Awards, the highest honor for online communications.

Webby Award

NASA nominated for six 2018 Webby Awards

The mission is the next step in NASA’s search for planets outside our solar system.

Illustration of TESS in space

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite arrives at Kennedy Space Center for launch

Our nearest neighboring star Proxima Centauri bears a startling resemblance to our own sun, raising questions about conditions on its Earth-sized planet.

An illustration of a star, with a cutout showing its interior.

Proxima Centauri might be more sunlike than we thought

"I think when you find a question you’re interested in pursuing, be brave and pursue it." The co-lead of NASA’s Kepler space telescope, Jessie Dotson, has pursued asteroids and exoplanets, and a lot more besides.

Jessie Dotson

A fearless astronomer behind a game-changing telescope

NASA's James Webb Space telescope will now revise its 2019 launch window to approximately May 2020.

The mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope.

New launch window under review

Hubble reveals that at least three of the TRAPPIST-1 planets do not seem to contain puffy, hydrogen-rich atmospheres similar to gaseous planets such as Neptune.

Artist's concept of spectroscopy

Hubble probes atmospheres of exoplanets in TRAPPIST-1 habitable zone

Astronomers have discovered two planets using NASA's Kepler telescope: a super Earth inferno and its Neptune-like companion.

Illustration of a grey planet with a star

Discovery alert! Iron-made super Earth

The knowledge and tools NASA has developed to study life on Earth will be a great asset to the study of planets beyond our solar system.

Earth as a point of light

Our living planet shapes the search for life beyond Earth

A super Earth that scorches in extreme heat because it circles so close to its star.

Illustration of a planet

Discovery alert! A sizzling super Earth

NASA researchers say they have passed a major milestone in their quest to detect the atmospheres of giant planets outside our solar system.

Photo of scientist with instrument

NASA team passes major technological milestone for characterizing exoplanets

The first science targets for the powerful Webb telescope have been announced, and they include the TRAPPIST-1 system.

Artist's concept of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

Icy moons, galaxy clusters, and distant worlds! Oh my!

The flying SOFIA telescope has found a planetary system that has similar architecture to our own, in the system Epsilon Eridani.

Illustration of Epsilon Eridani

SOFIA confirms nearby planetary system is similar to our own

NASA has selected 28 fellows for its prestigious Einstein, Hubble and Sagan fellowships.

Photo of Raphaelle Haywood, new Sagan Fellow.

NASA announces astronomy and astrophysics fellows for 2017

A team of scientists led by the Carnegie Institution for Science has released the largest collection of observations for hunting exoplanets to the public.

Illustration of an exoplanet.

Scientists make huge dataset of nearby stars available to public

University of Warwick researchers have identified a white dwarf pulsar – a star type which has eluded astronomers for half a century.

Illustration of binary star pair

Mysterious white dwarf pulsar discovered

The vortex coronagraph has the potential to image planetary systems closer to their host stars than any other instrument in the world.

Direct image of a brown dwarf

New planet imager delivers first science

Go beyond what's possible; that's the Spitzer Space Telescope's motto. Designed for a two-year mission, 13 years later it's still searching the skies for new discoveries.

An artist's concept of the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Spitzer Space Telescope begins 'Beyond' phase

The relatively nearby planet GJ 1132b may have an atmosphere despite being baked to a temperature of around 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

An artist's illustration of the planet curve with its star in the background.

Venus-like exoplanet might have oxygen atmosphere, but not life

Astronomers have pinpointed which planets discovered by the NASA Kepler mission may sustain liquid water on their surfaces.

An illustration of Kepler-186f.

Astronomers help focus research in the search for another Earth

To find Earth-like planets, NASA will face a challenge that seems impossible: build a space telescope so stable, it moves less than the width of an atom.

At a Goddard cleanroom, technicians unveil the James Webb Observatory’s segmented mirror.

The next generation of telescopes are almost impossibly accurate

A young star's stellar outburst brings its water snow line into view. The bizarre idea of snow orbiting in space is fundamental to planet formation.

A bright star is surrounded by an inner circle of dust and a glowing snowy outer circle.

Snow line discovered in bright baby solar system

Astronomers from UC Santa Cruz have found the first strong evidence of water vapor or ice in the the coldest known object outside our solar system– a brown dwarf five times the size of Jupiter.

An artist's concept shows the coldest object outside our solar system as blue in color, with the band of the Milky Way in the background.

Astronomers find water clouds in cold Jupiter-like object

How do some gas giant planets end up so feverishly close to their stars? NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope finds new clues.

How do some gas giant planets end up so feverishly close to their stars? NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope finds new clues.

In space 'Jupiter' planets burn hot, not cold

The organic molecule methyl alcohol (methanol) has been found for the first time in a young planet-forming disc.

This artist’s impression shows a protoplanetary disc, with an inset of the organic molecule methanol.

First detection of methyl alcohol in a planet-forming disc

A team of astronomers has found that there are far more planets of the hot Jupiter type than expected in a dense cluster of stars called Messier 67.

A hot Jupiter orbits close to its star

Unexpected excess of giant planets in star cluster

Venus has an “electric wind” that may have played a significant role in stripping Earth’s twin planet of its oceans.

An artist's concept of the electric wind at Venus. Rays represent the paths that oxygen and hydrogen ions take as they are pulled out of the upper atmosphere.

‘Electric wind’ can strip potential Earths of oceans, atmospheres

New research suggests that aging stars can warm previously frozen Hoth-like planets into supporting life.

An artist's concept of a burning exoplanet. New research suggests that aging stars can warm previously frozen Hoth-like planets into supporting life.

Giant red stars may heat frozen worlds into habitable planets

The Search for Life

Finding potential life-bearing worlds among the stars is NASA's next big challenge.

Exoplanets 101

Habitable Zones

Life Signs

Inventing the Future

The Search for Life

Finding potential life-bearing worlds among the stars is NASA's next big challenge.

Exoplanets 101

What is an exoplanet? Where are they located and how do we find them?

Learn more about Exoplanets 101 ›

Habitable Zones

Where's the best place to look for life-bearing planets among the stars?

Learn more about Habitable Zones ›

Life Signs

Find evidence of life on distant planets will require advanced technology and a little luck.

Learn more about Life Signs ›

Inventing the Future

Learn about the futuristic technology NASA is developing to explore alien worlds.

Learn more about Inventing the Future ›

Ask a Question

Exoplanet Exploration Program

Exoplanet Exploration Program

NASA's science, technology and mission management office for the exploration of exoplanets. The program's primary goals, as described in the 2014 NASA Science Plan, are to discover planets around other stars, to characterize their properties and to identify planets that could harbor life.

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.

Strange New Worlds

Explore an interactive gallery of some of the most intriguing and exotic planets discovered so far.

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.