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Other worlds

In 1992 we knew of zero planets outside our solar system · today: 5,985+ confirmed and growing weekly · NASA's new Pandora mission is now probing their atmospheres for water, hydrogen, and the chemical signatures of life.

[01]   NASA Pandora · First Light Launched January 11, 2026 · First images May 2026 NEW MISSION
SPECTRUM ANALYSIS H₂O DETECTED

The first space telescope built for exoplanets

NASA's Pandora launched on January 11, 2026 — a small "fridge-sized" satellite designed to do one thing extraordinarily well: untangle the spectrum of a star from the spectrum of its planet. By observing 20 known exoplanets in visible and infrared wavelengths simultaneously, Pandora can isolate the atmospheric chemistry of each world from the contamination of starspots and stellar variability.

First engineering images released in May 2026 confirm the spacecraft is operating with sub-millimeter pointing stability — the precision needed to read starlight filtered through atmospheres dozens of light-years away.

Aperture45 cm
Wavelengths0.38–1.63 μm
Targets20 planets
Detector temp110 K
[02]   The Numbers NASA Exoplanet Archive · Caltech/IPAC-NExScI UPDATED WEEKLY
5,985
Confirmed Exoplanets
As of May 2026 · adds ~10/week
4,471
Planetary Systems
Stars known to host planets
990
Multi-planet Systems
Stars with 2+ confirmed planets
~70
Habitable-Zone Worlds
Rocky · right temperature for liquid water
[03]   Notable Worlds Selected highlights from the catalog ICONIC

TRAPPIST-1 e

Distance 39.6 light-years · Earth-size · in habitable zone
One of seven Earth-size planets orbiting a nearby ultra-cool dwarf star. Three planets (e, f, g) sit in the temperate zone where liquid water could exist. JWST is currently observing the atmospheres.
Possibly habitable

Proxima Centauri b

Distance 4.24 light-years · 1.07 Earth masses · habitable zone
The closest known exoplanet, orbiting our nearest stellar neighbor. Tidally locked and bathed in stellar flares, but possibly rocky. Target for future direct-imaging missions.
Possibly habitable

K2-18 b

Distance 124 light-years · 8.6× Earth mass · "Hycean" candidate
JWST detected methane and CO₂ in 2023, plus a tentative dimethyl sulfide signal — a molecule produced by life on Earth. Still controversial, but the most provocative atmospheric finding yet.
Sub-Neptune

HD 189733 b

Distance 64.5 light-years · Hot Jupiter · sideways "rain" of glass
Cobalt-blue gas giant where temperatures exceed 1,000°C and silicate particles fall sideways at 8,700 km/h. Among the most studied exoplanet atmospheres.
Hot Jupiter

55 Cancri e

Distance 41 light-years · 8.1× Earth mass · lava world
A "super-Earth" so close to its star that one side may be a permanent lava ocean. Theorized to have a carbon-rich interior — possibly a planet of diamond.
Super-Earth

Kepler-22b

Distance 587 light-years · 2.4× Earth radius · habitable zone
First confirmed habitable-zone planet (2011). Likely an "ocean world" with no land surface — one of the original poster children of the modern exoplanet era.
Possibly habitable
[04]   How We Find Them Detection methods
Transit Photometry

Watching for blinks

When a planet crosses in front of its star (a "transit"), the star dims by a tiny fraction — typically less than 1%. By monitoring brightness over time, missions like Kepler, TESS, and CHEOPS detect these dips. Most exoplanets we know of were found this way.

Radial Velocity

Stellar wobble

A planet's gravity tugs its star in a tiny ellipse. Spectrographs measure this wobble through Doppler-shifted starlight. The first exoplanet around a sun-like star (51 Peg b, 1995) was found this way — earned the 2019 Nobel Prize.

Direct Imaging

Seeing the planet

The hardest method: actually photographing a planet by blocking out its star's blinding light. Only works for big, young, hot planets far from their stars. JWST and ground-based coronagraphs are pushing this technique closer to Earth-like worlds.

[05]   Active & Upcoming Missions The next decade of exoplanet science

Pandora

ACTIVE NOW

Cost-capped Pioneers-program smallsat. Disentangles star/planet spectra simultaneously in visible + IR. First light May 2026. Science observations to begin after commissioning.

Aperture45 cmTargets20Mission1+ year

JWST

ACTIVE NOW

Premier infrared observatory. Spectroscopy of TRAPPIST-1, K2-18b, WASP-39b atmospheres has revealed water, CO₂, methane, sulfur dioxide. The flagship for exoplanet atmospheric science.

Aperture6.5 mLaunched2021LocationL2

TESS

ACTIVE NOW

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Monitors ~200,000 nearby bright stars for transits. Has discovered 7,000+ planet candidates. Targets for JWST and Pandora follow-up come from here.

Sectors13×8.5°Launched2018Cadence2 min

Roman Space Telescope

2027 LAUNCH

Wide-field infrared observatory. Will use microlensing to find ~1,400 planets including Earth-mass worlds at large orbital distances — filling in the population statistics Kepler couldn't reach.

Aperture2.4 mFOV100× HubbleTargets~1,400

ARIEL (ESA)

2029 LAUNCH

Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey. Will spectroscopically observe 1,000 known exoplanet atmospheres in 4 years — the first survey of its scale.

Aperture1.1 mTargets~1,000LocationL2

Habitable Worlds Observatory

~2040 LAUNCH

NASA's planned flagship successor to Hubble & JWST. Designed specifically to directly image and characterize 25+ Earth-like exoplanets and search for biosignatures (oxygen, methane, water).

Aperture~6 mMissionDirect imagingGoalFind life
[06]   Why exoplanets matter The bigger picture

From "are we alone?" to "how many neighbors do we have?"

For all of human history until 1992, every planet we knew about orbited our own Sun. Then two astronomers, Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail, found two planets orbiting a pulsar 2,300 light-years away. Three years later, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz found 51 Pegasi b — the first planet around a sun-like star.

Just 30 years on, we know of nearly 6,000. And we now know, statistically, that there are more planets than stars in the Milky Way — roughly a trillion of them in our galaxy alone.

The question has shifted entirely. We no longer ask whether other solar systems exist. We ask: how common are Earth-like worlds? What percentage have atmospheres? Liquid water? Are biosignatures common, or are we astonishingly rare? Pandora is one small piece of answering this. JWST is another. Roman, ARIEL, and HWO will sharpen the picture each decade.

Within most of our lifetimes, we will probably know whether life exists on at least one other planet. That's the project. That's the why.