2021 Exoplanet Archive News

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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.

September 10, 2021

Two New Transiting Planets

We've added two TESS planets, one of which, TIC 172900988 b, is a circumbinary planet that separately transits both of its host stars. The other planet is TOI-1518 b, an ultra-hot Jupiter in a mis-aligned orbit; the planet is in a retrograde orbit—something not seen in our own solar system.

We've also added new parameters for HD 203030 b and the seven TRAPPIST-1 planets. See the Planetary Systems Table and its companion table, Planetary Systems Composite Parameters for all of this week's new data.

News panel image credit: ESA/Hubble

September 2, 2021

Two Planets Found Via Microlensing

This week's new planets, KMT-2019-BLG-1715L b and KMT-2018-BLG-1025L b, were both found using the microlensing technique. Together they bring the archive's confirmed planet count to 4,514.

All new data can be accessed from the Planetary Systems Table and its companion table, Planetary Systems Composite Parameters, which offers a more complete table of planet parameters combined from multiple references and calculations. The new planets are also in the Microlensing Table.

August 26, 2021

40 New Planets

There are 40 new planets this week—37 of them found lurking in K2 data as validated planet candidates, as described in de Leon et al. (2021).

We've also added L 98-59 e, a fourth planet found in the same system as L 98-59 b, the rocky, innermost planet that has half the mass of Venus—making it the lowest-mass exoplanet ever measured with the radial velocity technique. The new d planet and the refined-mass b planet are described in a media release and in Demangeon et al. (2021).

Here is the full list of new planets: L 98-59 e, TOI-2202 b & c, K2-185 c, K2-268 d, e, & f, K2-304 c, K2-307 c, K2-330 b, K2-331 c & b, K2-332 b, K2-333 b, K2-334 b, K2-335 b, K2-336 b, K2-337 b, K2-338 b, K2-339 b, K2-340 b, K2-341 b, K2-342 b, K2-343 b & c, K2-344 b, K2-345 b, K2-346 b, K2-347 b, K2-348 b & c, K2-349 b, K2-350 b & c, K2-351 b, K2-352 b, c & d, K2-353 b, and K2-354 b.

News panel image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

August 19, 2021

Cuckoo for COCONUTS-2 b

We've added COCONUTS-2 b, a gas giant discovered by the COol Companions ON Ultrawide orbiTS (COCONUTS) survey. It also has the distinction of being the closest directly imaged exoplanet found so far. Read the University of Hawaii media release and the discovery paper by Zhang et al.

We've also added five more planets: TOI-2406 b, TOI-532 b, and TOI-431 b, c, & d.

News panel image credit: B. Bays (SOEST/UH)

August 12, 2021

Five New Planets

There are five new planets this week, some with interesting backstories.

Three Kepler planets, KIC 8121913 b (Kepler-1705 b), KIC 10068024 b (Kepler-1706 b). and KIC 5479689 b (Kepler-1707 b), were found using a lesser-known detection technique known as orbital brightness modulation, where each planet's orbital phase is coupled with the periodic modulations of reflected stellar light, ellipsoidal modulations, and Doppler beaming. Though this method has been used in the past to discover and confirm exoplanets, it's not common. In fact, only six other planets have been found this way. Learn more about the technique in the discovery paper by Lillo-Box, Milholland & Laughlin.

Also, another planet has been found in the AU Microscopii (AU Mic) system, which was in the news last year because of its close proximity to Earth, giving us an excellent opportunity to study how planets and their atmospheres form. AU Mic's first planet is commemorated in a NASA poster.

The fifth and final planet, KMT-2019-BLG-0371L b, was found with microlensing, so it has been added to the Planetary Systems Tables and Planetary Systems Composite Parameters tables with the other new planets this week, as well as the Microlensing Table.

New Data, Including nu 2 Lupi

We've also added new data for known systems HD 97658 b and HD 183579, as well as the three-planet nu 2 Lupi system (also known as HD 136352). nu 2 Lupi d was serendipitously found to transit, making it the longest-period planet known to transit a star visible to the naked eye, and a compelling target for further investigation.

August 5, 2021

An Assortment of Six Planets

This week, we've amassed six planets with masses spanning a wide range—from sub-Neptunes to Jupiters to super-Jupiters to brown dwarfs! The new planets are: TOI-1062 b & c, TOI-1278 b, KMT-2018-BLG-1976L b, KMT-2018-BLG-1996L b, and OGLE-2019-BLG-0954L b.

Find these data in the Planetary Systems Table and its companion table, Planetary Systems Composite Parameters, which offers a more complete table of planet parameters combined from multiple references and calculations. The microlensing planet data have also been added to our Microlensing Table.

July 29, 2021

Seventeen New Planets!

This week's planetary profusion consists of 11 transiting planets—including a new Kepler planet— and six found with radial velocity. These bring the total confirmed planet count to 4,455.

The new planets are: HAT-P-58 b, HAT-P-59 b, HAT-P-60 b, HAT-P-61 b, HAT-P-62 b, HAT-P-63 b, HAT-P-64 b, TOI-1749 b, c, & d, Kepler-1704 b, HD 27969 b, HD 80869 b, HD 95544 b, HD 109286 b, HD 115954 b, and HD 211403 b.

AstroQuery Supports New Archive Tables

If you use the astroquery.nasa_exoplanet_archive module, release v0.4.3 of the module now supports Table Access Protocol (TAP) queries to the new Planetary Systems (ps) and Planetary Systems Composite Parameters (pscomppars) tables.

No changes in syntax are required, but note that methods that previously queried the Confirmed Planets table (exoplanets), which returned one row per planet, now query the PS table, which can return multiple rows per planet. Support for querying the retired tables (exoplanets, exomultpars, and compositepars) has now been discontinued.

AstroQueryPy's module documentation and examples have been updated to reflect these changes. Let us know if you find any issues!

July 22, 2021

Four New TESS Planets

This week we've added four planets orbiting a pair of related young stars observed by NASA's TESS. The new planets are: TOI-2076 b, c, & d (all described as mini-Neptunes) and TOI-1807 b, which is about twice the size of Earth. Read the discovery paper and NASA's media release, which includes a two-minute video illustrating these two interesting systems, and then check out the two systems' overview pages.

More TAP-supported Tables

As part of our continued migration to the IVOA's Table Access Protocol (TAP) standard, we've added five more tables to our TAP service:

SuperWASP (superwasptimeseries)
KELT (kelttimeseries)
UKIRT (ukirttimeseries)
Microlensing Planets (ml)
(Note: This table name was changed from microlensing to ML and assigned new database column names in April 2021.)
Object Aliases (object_aliases), which is is a table of all planetary system aliases recognized by the Exoplanet Archive.

The old API support for these tables is being discontinued, so please convert any existing old API queries to TAP queries, and use TAP for all new queries. Here are some resources:

TAP User Guide
Column names mapping document between old microlensing and new ML tables (for queries created before April 2021): PDF CSV
A recap of the the recent and iterative changes to the archive's tools and services: Developing a More Integrated Exoplanet Archive and the Archive 2.0 Release Notes.

Also, the API User Guide lists table-specific information on when the old API access will be discontinued.

July 15, 2021

A Cool Crop of Planet-hosting Stars

This week's 10 new planets have something in common: they all orbit cool stars—as in, M dwarfs and K dwarfs. The new planets are: TOI-674 b, TOI-1685 b, TOI-1260 b & c, TOI-1634 b, TOI-1259 A b, GJ 720 A b, G 264-012 b & c, and Gl 393 b.

News panel image credit: ESO/L. Calçada/Nick Risinger

July 1, 2021

Two New Planets, New Radial Velocity Parameters

This week's data include two new planets, Kepler-129 d and GJ 849 c, and radial velocity planet parameters for 163 known exoplanets.

June 17, 2021

21 New Planets Include Two Found by Citizen Scientists

We've added 21 planets this week, two of which were discovered by citizen scientists participating in the Zooniverse Planet Hunters TESS project. See the System Overview page for HD 152843 and NASA's news release featuring some of the co-authors.

The other new planets this week are WASP-110 b, Kepler-1703 b (KOI-3503.01), Kepler-1703 c (KOI-3503.02), Kepler-324 d (KOI-1831.03), Kepler-968 d (KOI-1833.02), HD 107148 c, HD 136925 b, HD 141004 b, HD 145675 c, HD 156668 c, HD 164922 e, HD 168009 b, HD 213472 b, HD 24040 c, HD 26161 b, HD 3765 b, HD 66428 c, HD 68988 c, and HD 95735 c.

You can also see all the new data in the Planetary Systems Table and its companion table, Planetary Systems Composite Parameters, which offers a more complete table of planet parameters combined from multiple references and calculations.

News panel image credit: NASA/Scott Wiessinger

New Spitzer Kepler Survey (SpiKeS) Contributed Data

This latest contributed data set by Werner et al. 2021 provides the highest-precision infrared photometry of ~200,000 Kepler field stars to help identify Kepler targets that may be blended binaries or have dusty material orbiting the stars. The data file can be downloaded from the SpiKeS documentation page.

June 3, 2021

12 New Planets, Including Rare Neptune-sized Gas World

This week's crop of exoplanets includes TOI-1231 b, a Neptune-sized gas world that orbits a very bright red-dwarf star—a rare occurrence that may provide opportunities for atmospheric data observations for exoplanet characterization. Read NASA's Discovery Alert for details.

Check out TOI-1231 b's System Overview page, as well as those for the other 11 planets: YSES-2 b, TOI-220 b, TOI-1444 b & c, BD+45 564 b, BD+55 362 b, BD+63 1405 b, HD 124330 b, HD 155193 b, HD 331093 b, and BD-00 4475 b.

May 27, 2021

New Contributed Data: MARGE-HOMER (D'oh!)

The archive has added a new synthetic spectra data set and machine learning model to help users model atmospheric observations and retrieve atmospheric properties. The release consists of two software packages: MARGE and HOMER.

The Machine learning Algorithm for Radiative transfer of Generated Exoplanets (MARGE) is a Python package that trains a user-specified neural network architecture to approximate a deterministic process, based on some data generated by a forward model.

The Helper Of My Eternal Retrievals (HOMER) is a Python package that performs a Bayesian inverse inference using a MARGE-trained model.

The archive hosts the reproducible research compendium (RRC) of Himes et al. (2021). The RRC includes ~3.5 million emission spectra of synthetic hot Jupiters based on 12 free parameters, a trained neural network (NN) model that approximates the data set, the software + input files used to generate the data set and train the NN model, and more.

Read the documentation for further details and to access the data.

May 20, 2021

Six Planets Added, Including CFHTWIR-Oph 98 b

Among the six planets added this week is CFHTWIR-Oph 98 b, a giant planet orbiting a very low-mass star/brown dwarf that was directly imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The central "star" is only 15 MJup and twice the mass of the planetary companion. Check out the host's cool (as in low temperature) graphic on its System Overview page!

The other new planets are: HIP 56640 b, HIP 75092 b, HIP 90988 b, HIP 114933 b, and TOI-269 b. We've also added new data for 11 previously published planets. See the new data in the Planetary Systems Table and its companion table, Planetary Systems Composite Parameters, which offers a more complete table of planet parameters combined from multiple references and calculations.

As a reminder, the Confirmed Planets, Extended Planet Data, and Composite Parameters tables have been retired and are no longer updated. Please use the Planetary Systems tables for the most current published system data. To recap the recent the changes to the archive's tools and services, please see Developing a More Integrated Exoplanet Archive and the Archive 2.0 Release Notes.

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.

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