[[_text]]
{{nameParam}}
{{scaleMessage(earthRadii, nameParam)}}
How far away?
{{nameParam}} is {{distance}} lightyears away, which means that it would take you {{lyToTravelTime(distance)}} years to reach it going as fast as any human vehicle has ever gone.
How big is it?
Radius: {{earthRadii}} Earth radii
Mass: {{earthMass}} Earth masses
How much would you weigh?
Gravity: {{gravity}} g
Your weight: {{yourPlanetWeight}} (kg/lbs)
How hot is it?
There's an average temperature of {{temperature}} degrees C on {{nameParam}}.
How was it found?
Method: {{pl_discmethod}}
Facility: {{pl_facility}}
Telescope: {{pl_telescope}}
What star does it orbit?
Name: {{pl_hostname}}
Number of planets: {{pl_pnum}}
Age: {{st_age}} billion years
Mass: {{st_mass}} Solar masses
Surface Temperature: {{st_teff}} K
ra: {{ra}}, dec: {{dec}} (map)
Last updated: {{rowupdate}}
{{pl_name}}
{{distance}} lightyears away
Discovered in {{pl_disc}} with {{pl_telescope}}
Search
{{numberReturned}} planets found
How to create a custom search
Use comma separated queries to perform more complex searches.
Each part of the search should look like:
field specific-value
or
field lower-number upper-number
Examples
name kepler 22-b searches for Kepler 22-b specifically.
mass 0 20, method transit searches for planets that:
- have a mass between 0 and 20 Earth masses
- and were discovered using the transit method.
pl_pnum 2, pl_disc 2005 2009, mass 100 300 searches for planets that:
- are part of a system with only two planets
- were discovered between 2005 and 2009
- and have a mass 100-300 times the mass of the Sun.
Possible fields
radius(in Earth radii)mass(Earth masses)temperature(K)distance(lightyears)name(the planet's name)method(how it was found)facility(where it was found)telescope(name of the telescope used)
or any of these
ra(degrees)dec(degrees)pl_disc(year discovered)pl_dens(density in g/cm3)pl_pnum(number of other planets in system)pl_hostname(host star's name)hd_name(star's Draper name)hip_name(star's Hipparcos name)pl_cbflag(1for binary stary)st_age(star's age in billions of years)st_mass(star's mass in Solar masses)st_rad(star's radius in Solar radii)st_teff(star's temperature)st_optmag(star's optical magnitude)pl_orbeccen(eccentricity)pl_orbper(orbital period in days)
Search through a catalog of the 1,918 exoplanets found so far!
How far away? {{distanceDisplay}}
How large? {{radiusDisplay}}
How massive? {{massDisplay}}
How hot? {{tempDisplay}}
Not sure what to search for? Here are a few fantastic destinations!
Or, try searching for Earth-like planets!
What is an exoplanet?
Exoplanets are planets that exist outside of our Solar System. Most exoplanets orbit other stars. In some cases, they'll orbit two (called a binary) or three stars, and in rare cases they'll float freely through the galaxy without a home star!
Exoplanets take on a huge range of sizes, temperatures, compositions and distances from stars.
It's interesting to wonder if life could exist on different worlds, but to be honest, it's really hard to know with the little bit of data that we get from lightyears away. The key to finding life, we assume, is finding liquid water. Astronomers get excited about planets in the habitable zones around stars, however it's still possible for life to form closer to or farther from their home stars.
For instance, Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus both hold huge oceans of liquid water. Yet, both moons are well outside the Sun's habitable zone. Instead of capturing heat from sunlight, internal geological processes and insulating crusts of ice keep them warm enough for liquid water.
Most exoplanets that have been found so far are huge, which makes sense. The bigger the planet, the easier it is to spot. But astronomers are getting better at spotting smaller and smaller planets. The record now for smallest exoplanet spotted so far is Kepler-37b.
How are exoplanets found?
The Transit Method
Astronomers who use the transit method measure the brightness of a star over time. They look for repeated, predictable dips in a star's brightness. The duration and intensity of the dip reveal the radius of the planet.
Radial Velocity and Astrometry Methods
Astronomers who use radial velocity and astrometry measure the position of a star over time. Just as stars tug on planets, planets tug on stars. If a planet is much smaller or very far away from a star, the tug is difficult to measure. But if a planet is very close or very large, it's tug will make the star wobble back and forth.
Watch this video and pay attention to the atheletes' spinning movement just before they release the hammer. See how it makes them spin around? That's exactly the kind of movement astronomer's try to spot.
The difference between the methods is difference in the way the motion appears to us. For radial velocity, we're seeing the motion happen from the same plane so it looks side-to-side. For astrometry, we're looking down (or up?) pependicularly to the planet's orbit so the motion looks circular.
Timing Methods
Astronomers who use timing methods watch for changes in periodic events. There are a few different periodic events that astronomers have used to find planets.
Pulsars are rapidly rotating stellar cores left behind after supernovas. They emit periodic bursts of radio waves as they rotate that are incredibly regular. Nearby planets will tug on pulsars, minutely changing their periodicity. The first exoplanet, PSR B1257+12, was found this way.
Astronomers also use a combination of the transit method with timing methods to determine if there are multiple planets orbiting a star.
Gravitational Microlensing
Astronomers who use gravitational microlensing take advantage of general relativity. Light, like normal matter, is affected by gravity. Big objects, like planets, stars and galaxies will actually bend light that passes by. By analyzing the light coming from stars or galaxies behind a thing and looking for distortions, astronomers can measure the mass of the thing, which in some cases, is a planet.
Direct Imaging
Astronomers who use direct imaging visually spot planets with telescopes. Planets are very, very, very dim compared to stars however, so astronomers have to block out the light of a planet's home star to be able to see it.
Created by Cameron Pittman
...because I love space
Why the Exoplanet Explorer?
This originally began as the sample app for this Udacity course on JavaScript Promises that I was developing. I fell in love with it and this project quickly ballooned into a production quality app.
The app students build in the Promises course looks similar to this one, but the internals were simplified so that students only need to worry about Promises.
If you want to see how this app works, check out the source code on GitHub. Think you can improve it? Fork the repo and submit a pull request!
Data Sources, APIs, Libraries
All rights reserved to the respective authors and copyright holders.
Version: 1.0.1
