2016 Exoplanet Archive News

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For current news, see the Exoplanet Archive News page. For other news archives by year, see the 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2011-12 archives.

For a compilation of weekly tips that have appeared in past news items, see the Tip Archive.

December 21, 2016:

For our final update of 2016, we offer the following:

  1. New planets! We have added eight new planets, including five new K2 planets discovered in the 800-million-year-old Praesepe (Beehive) cluster. Note the five K2 planets in the Praesepe cluster were previously observed by the KELT-Praesepe survey; find the associated light curves in the new Nearby Object Data section of the the planet's Confirmed Planet Overview page (here's K2-100 b's page, for example).

    This week's update brings the total confirmed planet count to 3,439. Click to view the Planet Overview page: HD 30177 c, XO-6 b, EPIC 211990866 b (K2-100 b), EPIC 211913977 b (K2-101 b), EPIC 211970147 b (K2-102 b), EPIC 211822797 b (K2-103 b), EPIC 211969807 b (K2-104 b), and OGLE 2014-BLG-0676L b. Or, see the Confirmed Planets interactive table.

  2. We've also added 121 K2 candidates, bringing the total number of K2 confirmed and candidate objects to 520. View the data in the K2 Candidates interactive table.
  3. If you're attending the AAS conference in Grapevine, Texas the first week of January, stop by the NExScI booth in the exhibit hall and say hello! Project Scientist Jessie Christiansen will also be giving a Hyperwall presentation. (Look for the giant array of television screens.)
  4. Please note the Exoplanet Archive staff will be on a holiday break Dec. 23 through Jan. 2, so responses to Helpdesk tickets and social media may be delayed. We wish you a happy winterval and look forward to serving more new planets in 2017!

December 15, 2016:

We have several updates this week!
  1. We've added the Gaia magnitude, parallax and proper motions for confirmed planet hosts with Hipparcos or Tycho IDs in the TGAS catalog. View the data in the Confirmed Planets interactive table, and learn more about the parameters in the API documentation.

    2. If you would like to create or update an API query to retrieve our Gaia data, the new columns are:

    • Gaia G-Magnitude: gaia_gmag (default)
    • Gaia Parallax: gaia_plx
    • Gaia Proper Motion RA: gaia_pmra
    • Gaia Proper Motion Dec: gaia_pmdec
    • Gaia Total Proper Motion: gaia_pm
    • Gaia Distance: gaia_dist
    Note that you also need to update any saved preference sets to include Gaia parameters.
    Image credit: D. Ducros, ESA

  2. Our new Emission Spectroscopy interactive table lists data from the peer-reviewed literature measuring secondary eclipse depth as a function of wavelength. In addition, the table lists the telescope and instrument used for the observations. For descriptions of the available data, see the documentation.

    3. Access the table from our home page in the Work With Data section (lower-right corner).


  3. The download script for the Q1-17 DR 25 Kepler Stellar posterior chains has been re-activated with the corrected Distance and Extinction columns. Details are in the updated release notes. You can access these and other Kepler Stellar data and products from the Kepler Stellar Information page.

December 2, 2016:

There are 17 more planets in the archive this week, bringing the total confirmed planet count to 3,431. The new planets are:

HATS-31 b, HATS-32 b, HATS-33 b, HATS-34 b, HATS-35 b, WASP-127 b, WASP-130 b, WASP-131 b, WASP-132 b, WASP-136 b, WASP-138 b, WASP-139 b, WASP-140 b, WASP-141 b, WASP-142 b, HD 86950 b, and HD 222076 b.

See the Confirmed Planets interactive table for the data.

Also, all Kepler, Confirmed Planet, and Planet Host Overview pages now contain a Nearby Object Data section that lists the number of time series in the archive within 30 arcsec of that object and the number of associated literature files. Access an overview page by entering an object name in the Explore The Archive search on the home page.

November 17, 2016:

New this week:
  1. We've added newly confirmed radial velocity planet GJ 536 b!

  2. Also, you now have the ability to query the archive for a list of a confirmed planet's aliases using our application programming interface (API). Simply specify table=aliastable for the table and &objname with the planet name. Here is a query using beta Pic as an example:

    http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/nstedAPI/nph-nstedAPI?table=aliastable&objname=bet Pic&format=ipac

    For more information about using our API, consult the User Guide.

November 10, 2016:

We've added 10 newly confirmed planets this week: OGLE-2014-BLG-1760 b, 2MASS J22362452+4751425 b, HD 9174 b, HD 68402 b, HD 72892 b, HD 128356 b, HD 147873 b, HD 147873 c, HD 165155 b, and HD 224538 b. View the data on the Planet Overview pages, or in the Confirmed Planets interactive table.

Also, the Q1-17 DR25 Kepler Stellar data set has been updated to include corrected Distance and Extinction data, as described in Kepler's documentation (KSCI-19097-003) and in Mathur et al. 2016. Please note that Kepler Stellar Replicated Posteriors downloads are temporarily disabled pending delivery of corrected data, which is expected in December or January.

November 3, 2016:

This week we've added new confirmed microlensing planet OGLE-2012-BLG-0950L b and updated our Mass vs. Period movie with 2016 plotted data. You are welcome to use our movies and pre-generated plots in presentations when credit is given to the archive.

October 27, 2016:

This week's additions include a new Neptune-like planet to the rho CrB system (rho CrB c), two additional Neptune-like planets (HD 164922 c & HD 42618 b), a Hot Jupiter (HATS-18 b), transmission spectroscopy for WASP-39 b and GJ 3470 b, and updated various planetary parameters. View their individual Overview pages or see the Confirmed Planets interactive table.

Also, two of our movies now have updated plots! Our KOI Radius vs. Period movie illustrates the progress of Kepler discoveries over time, and now has data extending to mid-October 2016. Exoplanets: Detection by Discovery Year is an animated histogram showing the total number of exoplanet discoveries by detection method through mid-October 2016. You are welcome to download these files (as well as our pre-generated plots) and use them in presentation materials if credit is given to the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

October 13, 2016:

This week we welcome Kepler-56 d, as well as various updated planetary and stellar parameters. See the Confirmed Planets interactive table for the data.

User Tip! Did you know you can remove columns/parameters from any of our interactive tables (such as the Confirmed Planets table) so you only see the data that interest you? Fewer displayed columns means faster table load times! Also, our User Preferences feature lets you save your selections for future visits.

October 6, 2016:

This week:

  1. We've added two new planets, K2-99 b and OGLE 2015-BLG-0051L b (a.k.a. KMT-2015-BLG-0048L b) and transmission spectroscopy for WASP-39 b and WASP-17 b, and updated various planetary parameters.
  2. Also, by user request, we've added photometric and radial velocity data for Proxima Cen b. Access the data from the Planet Overview page (scroll to the Literature Time Series section).

September 29, 2016:

New to the archive this week:
  1. We've added 6 new confirmed planets! Welcome to K2-97 b, K2-98 b, HATS-11 b, HATS-12 b, OGLE 2007-BLG-349L AB c, and GJ 676 A c. View the new data in the Confirmed Planets interactive table.
  2. The Kepler Threshold-Crossing Events (TCE) bootstrap values have been updated, so now all data sets from every quarter have been computed with the same software. For details, see the Kepler KSCI document. Note: The file is also accessible from the Kepler TCE Documents page.

September 15, 2016:

New this week:
  1. This week we welcome two new planets, HAT-P-65 b and HAT-P-66 b, as well as updated parameters for 20 planets. View the new data in the Confirmed Planets interactive table.
  2. K2 targets for campaigns 10 and 11 are available through the K2 Targets search interface, or by using our API service by specifying &where=k2_campaign=10 or &where=k2_campaign=11 in your query.

    For your convenience, here are pre-built HTTP queries for each campaign:

September 8, 2016:

This week we welcome 12 new planets, including the solar twin binary system of HD 133131 (HD 133131A b, HD 133131A c, HD 133131 B b). (Click for press release.)

The other planets added this week are: HD 111998 b, WASP-92 b, WASP-93 b, WASP-118 b, KELT-17 b, K2-95 b, HR 2562 b (HR 2562 B), and HD 3167 b & c (K2-96 b & c).

Access all confirmed planet data from the Confirmed Planets table, or just the new planets from this filtered interactive table. You may also click on each planet's name above to view its Overview page.

Image credit: Timothy Rodigas, Carnegie Science

August 31, 2016:

This week we have more KELT data and a new interactive table feature:

  1. Save Your Interactive Table Settings: In response to user requests, our interactive tables now allow you to save your sorting, filtering, column selection and column placement preferences for future archive visits. To get started, click Login in the menu bar to create an account and then go to an interactive table, such as Confirmed Planets. For more information, see the User Preferences User Guide.
  2. KELT Light Curves for Four More Fields: We've added new KELT survey light curves for fields N06, N08, N10 and N12, as well as reprocessed light curves for fields N02 and N04. See our KELT summary page for more information, or go directly to the KELT Light Curves search tool.
  3. An Easier Way to Access Documentation: We've re-organized the Documentation Index page, which is a central location to access any document within the archive, as well as an archive-specific Google search tool. To find it, click on Support in the menu bar and select Documentation Index.

August 25, 2016:

New this week:

  1. Proxima Centauri b (a.k.a. Proxima b), the new Earth-sized planet that has the astronomy world buzzing this week, is in the archive. To view its parameters, check out the Planet Overview page. The discovery paper in Nature is also online. Image credit: Ricardo Ramirez, Nature
  2. The archive has also integrated Q1-17 DR 25 Kepler short cadence and K2 Campaign 8 light curves into our visualization and download tools, which include the Periodogram tool. Kepler light curves can be accessed via the Kepler time series viewer. You may also access both K2 and Kepler time series from the Kepler Names, KOI, K2 Names, K2 Targets, and Confirmed Planets interactive tables by clicking the icon and selecting the Time Series Download link.

August 18, 2016:

Two new planets this week: KIC 7917485 b (Kepler-1648 b) and HD 87646 b. Click on their names to view their individual Overview pages or see the Confirmed Planets interactive table for the data.

August 12, 2016:

We've added one newly confirmed planet this week, HD 59686 A b, as well as several updated stellar and planetary parameters, and new transmission spectroscopy (see WASP-121 b). View HD 59686 A b's individual Overview page or see the Confirmed Planets interactive table.

July 28, 2016:

This week we have three new confirmed planets (K2-56 b and GJ 3998 b & c), new transmission spectroscopy for WASP-43b, and various updated planet parameters, including transit timing updates for more than 1,600 planets from Holczer et al. 2016.

  • The new planets and their parameters are available through their individual Overview pages and the Confirmed Planets interactive table.
  • The Holczer parameters can be accessed through the Extended Planet Data table: search on 2016-07-28 for Date of Last Update, then filter the results table for Holczer in the Reference column.

July 18, 2016:

The 62 new K2 planets from Crossfield et al. 2016 are in the archive today, as well as four additional planets from other papers (WASP-113 b, WASP-114 b, HD 131399 A b & OGLE 2015-BLG-0954 L b). This brings the total confirmed planet count to 3,368.

Access all confirmed planet data from the Confirmed Planets table, or just the new planets from this filtered interactive table. For more information about the new K2 planets, see the NASA press release.

Also, we've added a K2 tab to the Transit Surveys area of our home page! Click on the K2 tab and then on one of the buttons in the grid.

July 7, 2016:

We've added 17 additional planets, which bumps up the total confirmed planet count to 3,302. The inductees are: HIP 41378 b, c, d, e & f, NGC 2682 YBP 401 b, K2-8 c, K2-35 b & c, K2-36 b & c, K2-37 b, c & d, K2-38 b & c, and WASP-85 A b. See their individual Overview pages, the Confirmed Planets interactive table, or this filtered interactive table containing only the planets added today.

June 23, 2016:

This week's updates:

1. We have added five new exoplanets this week, including two of the youngest exoplanets yet found: K2-33 b and V830 Tau b. We have also added WASP-157 b, HATS-15 b, and HATS-16 b. View their individual Overview pages or see the Confirmed Planets interactive table.

2. We have added eight new contributed Spitzer light curves from Beichman et al. 2016, seven for the K2-3 system and one for the K2-26 system. The light curves are accessible from the "Literature Time Series" table on the Overview pages.

3. The Kepler DR 25 TCE light curves and transit fits are now available from the Bulk Download page.

4. We have also added new contributed radial velocity curves on 76 target stars from Howard & Fulton 2016. The data are available as a single tar file on the Contributed Data page. If you have data to contribute to the archive, please see the guidelines on How to Contribute Data page.

June 9, 2016:

More planets! Eight more, to be exact: MOA 2010-BLG-353L b, WASP-121 b, HATS-25 b, HATS-26 b, HATS 27-b, HATS-28 b, HATS-29 b, and HATS-30 b. See their individual Overview pages, the Confirmed Planets interactive table, or this filtered interactive table containing only the planets added today.

Plus, we've added the K2 candidates from Schmitt et al. 2016 and Adams et al. 2016 to the K2 Candidates interactive table.

June 3, 2016:

This week's updates:

  1. Four new planets added this week: HD 219828 c, K2-39 b, WASP-120 b and WASP-123 b. View their individual Overview pages or see the Confirmed Planets interactive table.
  2. The Kepler False Positive Working Group data set has been re-named the Kepler Certified False Positive data set. The URLs to the interactive table and supporting documentation have not changed. Some values in the table have been updated or added; see the log file for details.
  3. We've added posterior distributions for stellar properties to the Kepler Stellar Q1-17 DR 25 table, which can be accessed from the Bulk Download page.

May 19, 2016:

  1. Five new planets this week: HD 191806 b, HD 214823 b, HD 221585 b, MOA 2013-BLG-605L b, and Kepler-1647 b. View their respective Overview pages or go to the Confirmed Planets interactive table. We've also removed 1 planet based on a published refutation.
  2. We've integrated K2 campaign 7 long cadence light curves into the archive. To access them:
    1. Go to the K2 Targets search interface and filter K2 Campaign as = 7, then click Submit Search.
    2. From the interactive results table, click on the icon. If a light curve is available, you'll see a K2 Time Series and Periodogram link.
  3. New Extended Planet Data Application Programming Interface (API): As requested by users, the Extended Planet Data (Search) may now be accessed through our API (exomultpars). For your convenience, here is a pre-built query. To build a new query or refine the one provided above, see the API User Guide and list of available parameters in the Extended Planet Data Contents page.

May 10, 2016:

1,285 New Planets (Not a typo!)

Today marks another milestone in exoplanet science: the Kepler Mission's media announcement revealed the validation of 1,284 Kepler exoplanets by Morton et al. 2016. We've also added Kepler-539 c from another paper (Mancini et al. 2016), bringing our confirmed exoplanet count to 3,264.

Each planet and its parameters have been added to the archive's Confirmed Planets table; there is also a filtered interactive table containing only the planets added today.

May 5, 2016:

New Planets and TCE Data!

  1. We've added 14 planets this week, including the TRAPPIST system that has been in the news: TRAPPIST-1 b, c & d, K2-19 d, K2-31 b, K2-32 b, K2-32 c, K2-32 d, K2-34b, WASP-119 b, WASP-124 b, WASP-126 b, WASP-129 b, WASP-133 b. We've also removed OGLE 2013-BLG-0723L B b based on a published refutation.
  2. The TCE list and DV data from the DR 25 Kepler pipeline is now available. The DV light curve FITS files now include the whitened data as used for planet searching by the pipeline. Note that the DR 25 TCEs are not yet associated with KOIs and so are not accessible from the KOI tables. Access the data from the Kepler TCE documents and Kepler Mission pages (click the Q1-17 DR 25 links), and learn more in the API documentation.

April 28, 2016:

A few updates:

  1. We've added two new planets, KELT-10 b and OGLE-2012-BLG-0724L b, as well as several updated parameters. View the planet's Overview pages or the Confirmed Planets interactive table.
  2. The archive has integrated Q1-17 DR 25 Kepler long cadence light curves in our visualization and download tools, which includes the Periodogram and Kepler Time Series Viewer tools. Note that the short cadence light curves are still version DR 24. More information about the DR 25 data is in the release notes.
  3. Radial velocity curves obtained by the MARVELS team described in Thomas et al. 2016 have been added to our holdings. The full data set is in this .tar file; individual RV files are also available in the Overview Pages for the relevant stars.

April 14, 2016:

  1. This week we have another K2 planet, K2-30 b, plus new microlensing curves for OGLE-2015-BLG-0966L.

  2. K2 Campaign 9 targets are available! Find them through the K2 Targets search interface, or by using our API service by specifying &where=k2_campaign=9 in your query.

    For your convenience, here is the pre-built HTTP query for all K2 Campaign 9 targets:

    http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/nstedAPI/nph-nstedAPI?&table=k2targets&format=ipac&where=k2_campaign=9

April 7, 2016:

In support of the K2 microlensing observations (Campaign 9) that start today, we're pleased to announce the release of the ExoFOP-K2 C9 site. Users may access the list of microlensing events happening in the field of view as well as detailed pages for each event. No login required. More information is in the Kepler press release.

March 31, 2016:

This week we welcome new planet TYC 3667-1280-1 b, which was discovered by radial velocity. Click on the name to view its Confirmed Planet Overview page, or see the Confirmed Planets interactive table.

March 24, 2016:

Three new planets added this week. One of the planets, K2-29 b, was also found in our SuperWASP light curves with the help of our Explore The Archive service. This allowed the discovery team to increase the observing baseline by 11 years, thereby dramatically improving the ephemeris.

The other planets are HATS-17 b and MOA 2011-BLG-028L b. Click the links to see their Planet Overview pages or go to the Confirmed Planets table.

March 17, 2016:

This week we've added 5 confirmed planets: 2 discovered with transits, 2 by radial velocity, and 1 with microlensing. The planets are HIP 8541 b, HIP 74890 b, OGLE 2015-BLG-0966L b, KELT-14 b, and KELT-15 b. Click the links to see their Planet Overview pages or go to the Confirmed Planets interactive table.

March 10, 2016:

This week!

  1. We've added Kepler-167 d and e to the archive, plus various updated stellar and planetary parameters. See the Confirmed Planets table for the data.
  2. We've also removed HD 7449 c and HD 99492 c, based on published refutations. For details, see the Removed Targets page.
  3. Based on the new results from Johnson et al. 2016, HD 219134 e and h are now considered to be the same object. This means that if you search for HD 219134 e, your results will be for HD 219134 h.

March 3, 2016:

As requested by users, K2 Candidate data may now be accessed through our Application Programming Interface (API). For your convenience, here is a pre-built query. To build a new query or refine the one provided above, see the API User Guide and list of available parameters in the K2 Candidates Data Column Definitions.

February 25, 2016:

This week's updates:
  1. 14 planets have been added: KELT-4 A b, HD 141399 b, c, d & e, HD 143105 b, HIP 109600 b, HD 35759 b, HIP 109384 b, HD 220842 b, HD 12484 b, HIP 65407 b & c and K2-28 b. See the Planet Overview pages or go to the Confirmed Planets table.

  2. Additional Stellar Data for Kepler: Distance and extinction (Av) values have been added to the Kepler Stellar table related to the Q1-17 DR 25 release. These parameters are available at the Kepler Stellar search interface and API. The update is also reflected in the documentation.

  3. Updated K2 Targets Default Columns: Stellar parameters from Huber et al. 2016 have also been added to the K2 Targets search interface and API. As a result, some default columns have changed. If you use our API service with the default setting, this change affects your pre-programmed queries. The updated parameters are:

    New defaults: Stellar Effective Temperature (k2_teff), Stellar Mass (k2_mass), Stellar Radius (k2_rad), and Ks-band (2MASS) (k2_kmag).

    No longer defaults: Number of K2 Proposal Identifiers (k2_npropid)

    A complete description of each parameter is available on the K2 Targets Data Column Definitions page. For API query troubleshooting, see the API User Guide. (Note: Use select=* to retrieve all available parameters from the k2targets data table; otherwise, specify parameters by database column name, e.g. select=pl_def_name,pl_hostname,st_dens.)

    To learn more about default parameters in the archive, see What are default parameters? in the FAQ.

February 11, 2016:

Several updates this week, including:

  1. New planets Pr0211 c, K2-27 b and K2-24 b & c are part of the archive today, as well as updated stellar and planetary parameters. See their Overview pages or go to the Confirmed Planets table.

  2. Kepler Stellar Q1-17 DR 25 data are available through the archive's Kepler Stellar search interface and application programming interface (API). These data comprise the stellar parameters used for the Q1-17 DR 25 pipeline run. Other products from this pipeline run will be available in the next few months. Documentation is posted on the Kepler Stellar Documentation page.

    3. For your convenience, here is the pre-built HTTP query for all Kepler Stellar Q1-17 DR 25 data in IPAC ASCII table format:

    http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/nstedAPI/nph-nstedAPI?table=q1_q17_dr25_stellar&format=ipac&select=*

  3. We've updated the KOI Radius vs. Period movie that illustrates the progress of Kepler discoveries over time. This update includes Q1-17 DR 24 data. Watch it on our Videos page.

February 4, 2016:

Our latest updates include:

  1. This week we welcome radial velocity planets HD 5583 b and BD+15 2375 to the archive and various updated stellar and planetary parameters. See their Overview pages or go to the Confirmed Planets table.

  2. Have you tried out the redesigned Periodogram service yet? The old Periodogram service will be operational until the end of February, at which point it will be decommissioned. We highly recommend switching to the new service immediately. For some sample use cases with the new interface, see the recipes for a variable star and star spot evolution.

    For more information and help on using the Periodogram service, consult the user guide by clicking on the Documentation tab within the service's interface.

January 28, 2016:

New this week:

  1. K2 Campaign 8 targets are available! Find them through the K2 Targets search interface, or by using our API service by specifying "&where=k2_campaign=8" in your query.

    For your convenience, here is the pre-built HTTP query for all K2 Campaign 8 targets:

    2. http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/nstedAPI/nph-nstedAPI?&table=k2targets&format=ipac&where=k2_campaign=8

  2. Our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page is updated regularly to address common user questions, such as "How do I find all the transiting confirmed planets?" and "How are Kepler numbers assigned?" Take a look, and if you don't see an answer to a question you'd like to ask, submit a Helpdesk ticket.

January 21, 2016:

This week:

  1. We include K2-26 b, WASP-76 b and WASP-90 b in the archive, updated planetary parameters, and microlensing light curves for MOA 2009-BLG-387L, which can be accessed from its Planet Host Overview page.

  2. We've also updated values for the Host Star Relative Probability Source Flag (pp_host_prob_prov) for 315 false positive KOIs; view them in the Kepler Astrophysical Positional Probabilities table.

January 14, 2016:

This week's updates:
  1. HD 33844 b and c have been added, as well as various updated planetary parameters and eight new transmission spectroscopy data files.

  2. We've updated two movies of our pre-generated plots that can be viewed from our Videos page:

    • 26 Years of Discoveries, which shows the number of exoplanet discoveries in mass-period space from 1989 through 2015, and

    • Exoplanets: Detection by Discovery Year, a histogram showing the total number of exoplanet discoveries by detection method through 2015.

    We are in the process of updating the third movie, KOI Radius vs. Period.

January 5, 2016:

Happy new year! Here are some updates for you:

  1. New K2 Candidates Table: We've created a new K2 Candidates interactive table with information about K2 planetary candidates. The collected data are currently from two refereed publications: Montet et al. 2015 and Vanderburg et al. 2015. All presented data are linked to the corresponding publication. Access the table from the Data pull-down menu on any archive web page and click the K2 Candidates link.

  2. New Planets: We're ringing in the new year with 12 more planets, bringing the confirmed planet count to 1,930. The new planets are HD 32963 b, KIC 3558849 b (Kepler-455 b), KIC 5951458 b (Kepler-456 b), KIC 8540376 b & c (Kepler-457 b & c), KIC 9663113 b (Kepler-458 b), KIC 10525077 b (Kepler-459 b), KIC 5437945 b (Kepler-460 b), K2-25 b, and Wolf 1061 b, c & d. View their individual Overview pages by clicking on their names, or view their aggregate data in the Confirmed Planets table.

  3. Are you at AAS 227 this week? Stop by the NExScI booth (222 and 224) and say hi!