Kepler Archives

Scientists have found thousands of exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) throughout the galaxy. Most can be studied only indirectly, but scientists know they vary widely, as depicted in this artist’s concept, from small, rocky worlds and gas giants to water-rich planets and those as hot as stars. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Larger image

NASA’s Exoplanet Discovery Exceeds 6,000 Worlds

by Keith CowingSeptember 17, 2025September 17, 2025

The official number of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system — tracked by NASA has reached 6,000. Confirmed planets are added to the count on a rolling basis by […]

Snapshot of the triple transit of planet b, c, and d as seen by K2 at the end of 2016. This artistic representation has been created with the software tango (https://github.com/oscaribv/tango).

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

Discovery Of A Multi-planetary System Orbiting The Aged Sun-like Star HD 224018

by Keith CowingAugust 23, 2025August 23, 2025

In 2016, Kepler/K2 detected a system of two sub-Neptunes transiting the star HD 224018, one of them showing a mono-transit event.

About a third of the 49 young isolated stars surveyed by the researchers were found to be misaligned with their protoplanetary disk. Photo Credit Lauren Biddle, The University of Texas at Austin

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release, Stellar Cartography

Some Young Suns Align With Their Planet-forming Disks, Others Are Born Tilted

by Keith CowingAugust 7, 2025August 7, 2025

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara, The University of Texas at Austin, Yale University and National Taiwan Normal University have found that a fair number of sun-like stars emerge with their […]

GAFs for exoplanet classification. The upper two frames represent GAFs for “planet” cases, characterized by distinct periodic patterns indicative of planetary transits. The lower two frames show GAFs for “not-planet” candidate cases, which lack the clear periodic structures seen in true exoplanet detections, indicating the absence of exoplanets. -- The Astronomical Journal

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Status Report

Exoplanet Classification Through Vision Transformers with Temporal Image Analysis

by Keith CowingJuly 30, 2025July 30, 2025

The classification of exoplanets has been a longstanding challenge in astronomy, requiring significant computational and observational resources.

Prot vs GBP − GRP diagram. The S ph value is colour-coded for the stars for which Gaia and K2 rotation measurements are cross-validated. The stars for which the measurements are consistent are shown in orange. On the left panel, the sample is compared with the density distribution of the Kepler stars from Santos et al. (2019, 2021) (in grey) while on the right panel it is compared with the density distribution of the stars from Gaia DR3 (in grey). -- astro-ph.SR

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release, Stellar Cartography

Rotation Of Young Solar-type Stars As Seen By Gaia And K2

by Keith CowingJuly 29, 2025July 29, 2025

Accurate surface rotation measurements are crucial to estimate stellar ages and improve our understanding of stellar rotational evolution.

Left: Eccentricity posterior generated by fitting the first nine chronological transits of TOI 555.01. Right: Eccentricity posterior generated by fitting the first nine chronological long-cadence transits of KOI 247.01. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

The Orbital Eccentricity-Radius Relation For Planets Orbiting M Dwarfs

by Keith CowingJuly 11, 2025

The orbital eccentricity-radius relation for small planets is indicative of the predominant dynamical sculpting processes during late-stage orbital evolution.

Binned Kepler photometry (blue dots) of the KOI population which both exists above the period-radius valley and below the H2 atmospheric evaporation limit shown in Figure 4. Overlaid is a clear H2 atmosphere (µ = 2 g/mol) refraction model (solid red line). Despite these exoplanets being the only ones in the APRV population capable of holding H/He atmospheres, any possible refraction effects are severely dampened when compared to the simulated effect for an optically thin H/He atmosphere. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Exoplanet Atmospheric Refraction Effects In The Kepler Sample

by Keith CowingJuly 7, 2025July 7, 2025

We present an analysis on the detection viability of refraction effects in Kepler’s exoplanet atmospheres using binning techniques for their light curves in order to compare against simulated refraction effects.

In the clean room – PLATO in OHB's integration facility - The 'optical bench' with its 26 cameras is lifted onto the service module of the spacecraft. The service module houses all the components required for spaceflight, control, operation of the space telescope and the transmission of scientific data to Earth. Image: 1/4, Credit: ESA – M. Pédoussaut

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, PLATO, Press Release

PLATO Space Telescope’s Cameras Have Been Integrated

by Keith CowingJuly 2, 2025April 27, 2026

Are there planets similar to Earth? Do they orbit stars like our Sun? How do planetary systems form and evolve? To answer these and other questions, the European Space Agency […]

Flux contamination from nearby sources in the photometry of a TESS Object of Interest, TOI-4479. Left: heat map with the pixel-by-pixel flux fraction coming from TOI-4479 in sector 41. The red grid is the SPOC aperture. The white disks represent all the nearby sources, and the six sources that most contribute to the aperture flux are highlighted in different colours. Right: Flux contributions to the SPOC aperture from the target and most contaminant stars. This plot was created through TESS-cont (https://github.com/castro-gzlz/TESS-cont) -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, PLATO, Press Release

Exoplanet Exploration In The Context Of The PLATO Mission: From Detection To Population Studies

by Keith CowingJune 29, 2025April 27, 2026

This thesis constitutes an observational effort to advance our understanding of planet formation and evolution across different regimes.

Scatter plot showing the period ratio as a function of the inner planet period, in days, for Kepler (blue), TESS (green), and K2 (red). The solid blue line in the lower left corner indicates a lower limit to observed period ratios as discussed in Section 3. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

Comparing The Architectures Of Multiplanet Systems From Kepler, K2, And TESS Data

by Keith CowingJune 28, 2025

Exoplanet surveys like Kepler, TESS, and K2 have shown that planetary systems are common in our galaxy.

Kepler

NASA’s Exoplanet Discovery Exceeds 6,000 Worlds

Discovery Of A Multi-planetary System Orbiting The Aged Sun-like Star HD 224018

Some Young Suns Align With Their Planet-forming Disks, Others Are Born Tilted

Exoplanet Classification Through Vision Transformers with Temporal Image Analysis

Rotation Of Young Solar-type Stars As Seen By Gaia And K2

The Orbital Eccentricity-Radius Relation For Planets Orbiting M Dwarfs

Exoplanet Atmospheric Refraction Effects In The Kepler Sample

PLATO Space Telescope’s Cameras Have Been Integrated

Exoplanet Exploration In The Context Of The PLATO Mission: From Detection To Population Studies

Comparing The Architectures Of Multiplanet Systems From Kepler, K2, And TESS Data

Isobaric Crystallization of Aqueous Magnesium Chloride Solutions at Icy Moon Conditions

Systematic Uncertainties in Rocky Exoplanet Reflected Light from Incomplete Laboratory BRDF Measurements

New Discovery Links Hemispheres In The Mystery Of Earth’s Past Ice Ages

UV Photodamage Pathways And The Evolutionary Selection Of Thymine Over Uracil In Early Genetic Systems

Reversion To The Meta Body Form Of Life After Complete Cell Death In Pure Liquid Water