Exoplanets
Planets around other stars. You can’t see the planets themselves, but you can find the direction of their stars, and a few of those stars are visible to the eye.
19 notable systems · nearest first
- Proxima Centauri2 known planets · 4.2 light-yearsStar: telescope
- Barnard's Star4 known planets · 6.0 light-yearsStar: telescope
- Epsilon Eridani1 known planet · 10.4 light-yearsStar: visible to the eye
- Tau Ceti3 known planets · 11.9 light-yearsStar: visible to the eye
- Gliese 667 C5 known planets · 22.3 light-yearsStar: telescope
- TRAPPIST-17 known planets · 39.5 light-yearsStar: large telescope
- LHS 11402 known planets · 40.7 light-yearsStar: large telescope
- 55 Cancri5 known planets · 41.1 light-yearsStar: binoculars
- Upsilon Andromedae4 known planets · 43.9 light-yearsStar: visible to the eye
- 51 Pegasi2 known planets · 50.4 light-yearsStar: visible to the eye
- HD 1897331 known planet · 62.9 light-yearsStar: binoculars
- TOI-7004 known planets · 102 light-yearsStar: telescope
- K2-182 known planets · 124 light-yearsStar: large telescope
- HR 87995 known planets · 129 light-yearsStar: binoculars
- HD 2094581 known planet · 153 light-yearsStar: binoculars
- Kepler-1865 known planets · 561 light-yearsStar: position only
- Kepler-221 known planet · 635 light-yearsStar: telescope
- WASP-121 known planet · 1,411 light-yearsStar: telescope
- Kepler-4521 known planet · 1,828 light-yearsStar: large telescope
How we know they’re there
Most exoplanets are found indirectly. A planet crossing in front of its star dims it slightly (the transit method), or tugs the star back and forth so its light shifts in color (the radial-velocity method). A few large, young planets far from their stars, such as those around HR 8799, have been photographed directly with the largest telescopes.
The systems here were chosen because they are close, record-setting or historically important. Planet counts and properties come from the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia and change as new discoveries are confirmed. See Data & Licences for sources.