2021 Exoplanet Archive News

Sign up for Exoplanet Archive email updates

For previous years' news, see the 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2011-12 archives.

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

To view only the most recently added planets and updated parameters (default and non-default), see this pre-filtered and pre-sorted interactive table.

April 29, 2021

Archive 2.0 Has Landed

The Exoplanet Archive is excited to announce the Planetary Systems (PS) and the Planetary Systems Composite Parameters (PSCompPars) tables are now the official archive tables. The Confirmed Planets, Extended Planet Data, and Composite Parameters tables have been retired and are no longer updated.

All of our services have been updated to interact with the PS and PSCompPars tables, including our new VO-compliant Table Access Protocol (TAP) service, which offers a new optional json output in addition to votable, csv, and tsv outputs. We've also connected the Emission Spectroscopy and Transmission Spectroscopy tables to the TAP service, as well as the Kepler Names and K2 Names tables.

If you had API queries connected to the retired tables, they must be replaced with new TAP queries that point to the PS or PSCompPars table. Please note the database colum names have also changed. See the TAP User Guide for instructions on constructing new queries, as well as this document, which maps the columns names of the retired tables to the new PS tables.

The Microlensing Planets Table has also been redesigned and re-named (old: microlensing new: ML), so existing API queries must be updated. Please note, this table is still connected to the original API service, but will be migrated to TAP at a future date. To update existing queries, read the API User Guide and consult this column mapping document.

Redesigned System Overviews:

The multiple overview pages for confirmed planets, planetary candidates, and other objects have been consolidated into redesigned System Overview pages, which are now displayed by default from the Explore the Archive search on the home page. They're also linked to the Planet Name in the Planetary Systems tables.

For more information about the changes to the archive's tools and services, please see Developing a More Integrated Exoplanet Archive and the Archive 2.0 Release Notes.

Let us know how you're enjoying our new services—and what could be better. You can send us feedback through the Helpdesk, follow the archive on social media, or subscribe to our email list to stay informed. See our Connect page for links.

But Wait, There's More...Planets!

We also have eight new planets this week from the published literature: NGTS-15 b, NGTS-16 b, NGTS-17 b, NGTS-18 b, LHS 1478 b, TOI-257 b, and HD 5278 b & c.

April 26, 2021

Archive 2.0 Is Almost Here!

The final update to the Archive 2.0 transition is happening later this week.

We've been working hard for the past two years to bring you a more integrated user experience, with new data tables to replace three retiring tables, new system overviews, and a new Table Access Protocol (TAP) service, and other enhancements. The final update will be unveiled later this week, so stay tuned. (And yes, we'll also have new planets.)

If you're just joining us or need a refresher on what we've been up to, here you go: Developing a More Integrated NASA Exoplanet Archive and the Archive 2.0 Release Notes.

April 1, 2021

No Fooling—Eight New Planets Added!

No April Fool's Day jokes here. Our very serious science data archive has added eight confirmed planets and new microlensing data this week.

The new planets are: GJ 740 b, GJ 1151 b, HD 60292 b, HD 112640 b, TOI-201 b, TOI-519 b, OGLE-2018-BLG-1428L b, and OGLE-2017-BLG-1049L b.

See the new planetary data in the Planetary Systems Table (gamma) and its companion table, Planetary Systems Composite Parameters (gamma), which offers a more complete table of planet parameters combined from multiple references and calculations. Additional microlensing parameters for this week's two OGLE planets can be found in our Microlensing Table.

March 18, 2021

Three New Planets

Three planets have been added this week, all of them from the Gliese-Jahreiss (GJ) catalog and found using the radial velocity method. One planet in particular, GJ 486 b, has been identified as a hot, rocky super-Earth that has possibly retained some of its original atmosphere, making it a good candidate for atmospheric follow-up studies. See the media release for details. The other new planets are GJ 414 A b & c.

New Transmission Spectra for GJ 1132 b

We've updated the Transmission Spectroscopy table with data from Swain et al. (2021) on GJ 1132 b, a known, rocky sub-Neptune located 41 light-years away that may have lost its atmosphere and regenerated a new one from volcanic activity. See NASA's media release for details.

News panel image credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Hurt (IPAC/Caltech)

March 4, 2021

Gamma Leaps for New Overview Pages and Planetary Systems Composite Parameters Table

The redesigned system overview pages and the Planetary Systems Composite Parameters (PSCompPars) table have both been upgraded from beta to gamma versions this week. The changes, which are described in the Archive 2.0 Release Notes, include:

PSCompPars: Update to include stellar parameters that were not published as part of the planetary solutions, providing a more complete view of the properties of the host stars.
System Overviews:
- Implemented overviews for candidate-only systems (e.g., KOI-753, EPIC 201127519).
- Archive services and interfaces that link to overviews now default to new overviews. For example, entering a planet, candidate, or host name in the home page Explore the Archive search displays the new overview, as well as clicking a planet name in the PS and PSCompPars interactive tables.

For more information about the changes to the archive's tools and services, please see this Transition document and the Archive 2.0 Release Notes.

Thirteen New Planets

There are 13 new planets this week—more than half of them discovered by NASA's TESS! The new planets are K2-138 g, GJ 251 b, HD 238090 b, NGTS-14 A b, HD 13808 b & c, HD 183579 b, HD 110082 b, TOI-628 b, TOI-640 b, TOI-1333 b, TOI-1478 b, and TOI-1601 b. (The last seven in this list are the TESS planets.)

One of this week's new planets, K2-138 g, was discovered by Caltech/IPAC-NExScI postdoc Kevin Hardegree-Ullman, with help from citizen scientists in the Zooniverse Exoplanet Explorers project. Congratulations to Kevin and team!

The Confirmed Planets, Composite Planet Data, and Extended Planet Data interactive tables are currently updated with new planetary and stellar data, but will be retired at the end of March. See this Transition document for details.

February 18, 2021

Twelve Planets Added, Including TOI-178 System

This week we welcome 12 new members to the confirmed planet club, including the six-planet TOI-178 system believed to have one of the most complex resonance chains ever observed.

The new planets are: NGTS-13 b, HD 110113 b & c, TOI-178 b, c, d, e, f, & g, HD 4760 b, HD 96992 b, and TYC 0434-04538-1 b.

Check out the new planetary data in the Planetary Systems Table (gamma) and its companion table, Planetary Systems Composite Parameters (beta), which offers a more complete table of planet parameters combined from multiple references and calculations. The Confirmed Planets, Composite Planet Data, and Extended Planet Data interactive tables are also currently updated with new planetary and stellar data, but will be retired in early 2021. See this Transition document and the Archive 2.0 Release Notes for more information.

News panel image credit: ESO/L. Calçada

January 28, 2021

New Milestone: Over 100 TESS Planets!

This week's release consists of 10 new transiting planets, nine of which were discovered by NASA's TESS. This bumps up the total number of published, confirmed TESS planets to 107.

The new TESS planets are HD 108236 b, c, d, & e (aka TOI-1233), TOI-564 b, TOI-905 b and TOI-451 b, c, & d. The tenth planet, HD 108236 f, was discovered by ESA's CHEOPS mission. HD 108236 is also featured in this JPL Discovery Alert; its bright, Sun-like star hosts a hot super-Earth that is evaporating under the glare of its sun—teaching us more about exoplanet atmospheres.

January 11, 2021

New Year, New Planets

For our first release of 2021, we have a new multi-planet system in the archive: TOI 561. All of the system's five planets were observed by NASA's TESS and are published in two papers, Lacedelli et al. and Weiss et al. These discoveries are also featured today in the news: A Rocky Planet Around One Of Our Galaxy's Oldest Stars (Keck Observatory).

Two additional planets have also been added to the archive, both of which were observed as transits: TOI-776 b & c.

Home