Exoplanet Criteria for Inclusion in the Exoplanet Archive

There are numerous exoplanet-related catalogs available online, each with its own criteria on which objects to include in their list of planets. As such, users may notice different numbers associated with each information source.

The NASA Exoplanet Archive has adopted a policy of including and classifying all objects as planetary that meet the following criteria:

• The mass (or minimum mass) is equal to or less than 30 Jupiter masses.
• Sufficient follow-up observations and validation have been undertaken to deem the possibility of the object being a false positive unlikely
• The above information along with further orbital and/or physical properties are available in peer-reviewed publications.

An example of an object that has not been included is the companion to SCR 1845. This object was detected via imaging and has an estimated mass larger than the 30 Jupiter mass criteria stated above.

These criteria may change in the future as our understanding of exoplanets improves.