An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than the Sun. Until 1992 nobody had confirmed one. As of 3 October 2026, NASA's Exoplanet Archive lists 6,375.
6,375
Confirmed exoplanets, NASA Exoplanet Archive
4,711
Found by the transit method
1,504
Confirmed in 2016, the record year
Discoveries year by year
Exoplanets confirmed each year, by year of discovery
All methods. 2026 is a partial year, to 3 October
Source: NASA Exoplanet Archive, Planetary Systems Composite table, queried 3 October 2026
The chart has two huge spikes, in 2014 and 2016. Both came from NASA's Kepler space telescope. Kepler watched about 1.5 lakh stars for four years, looking for tiny dips in brightness when a planet passed in front. Its data was then confirmed in large batches. In 2016 alone, more than 1,400 transit planets were confirmed.
The smaller peak in 2021 partly reflects NASA's TESS mission, which scans almost the whole sky.
How planets are found
Confirmed exoplanets by discovery method
All years to 3 October 2026
Source: NASA Exoplanet Archive
- Transit. A planet crosses its star and blocks a little light. Kepler and TESS use this method. It finds about three in four planets.
- Radial velocity. A planet tugs its star back and forth. The star's light shifts slightly in colour. This method found the first planet around a Sun-like star, in 1995.
- Microlensing and imaging. These find a few hundred planets between them. Imaging takes an actual picture of the planet, which is only possible for large planets far from their star.
What comes next
Finding planets is no longer the hard part. The new work is studying them. The James Webb Space Telescope can now read the gases in some exoplanet atmospheres. The question it is chasing is whether any of these worlds could support life.