Exoplanets are planets that orbit a star other than the Sun. Over 5,000 have been confirmed to date, with thousands more candidates waiting to be confirmed. Astronomer-vetted data about all these planets are available for anyone to access in the NASA Exoplanet Archive. 

The NASA Exoplanet Archive is a collaboration between the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and the California Institute of Technology’s IPAC (formerly the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center). The archive contains measurements of the physical properties of known exoplanets and their host stars, as well as data aimed at identifying more exoplanets through methods such as transits and radial velocity curves. 

The archive’s data come from NASA exoplanet satellites such as Kepler and TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and from ground-based observatories such as KELT (Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope) and SuperWASP (Wide-Angle Search for Planets). The archive also recently added exoplanet atmosphere spectra from the James Webb Space Telescope, opening up access to even more details about these alien worlds. 

The Exoplanet Archive also features tools and resources for exoplanet research. These include plotting and fitting tools, calculators for the best time to observe an exoplanet host star, and alternative ways to access Exoplanet Archive data. 

Open exoplanet data, such as the data hosted on the NASA Exoplanet Archive, have enabled several citizen science projects. These initiatives do not require U.S. citizenship and allow interested members of the public, known as citizen scientists, to collaborate with professional scientists in making exoplanet discoveries. To learn more about the future of exoplanet citizen science, read the recent feature: How NASA Citizen Science Fuels Future Exoplanet Research.