Exoplanets

Have you ever wondered whether anything could live on a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun? This illustrated book for young readers introduces exoplanets, the planets that circle stars beyond our solar system. It explains the four main types of these worlds, the methods scientists use to find them, and how likely it is that life as we know it could exist beyond Earth.

NASA has confirmed more than 5,000 exoplanets so far, and the count keeps rising. The known planets include small rocky worlds like Earth, gas giants many times larger than Jupiter, and hot Jupiters that sit in scorchingly close orbits around their stars. Other kinds include super-Earths, which may be rocky and larger than our planet, and mini-Neptunes, which are smaller versions of Neptune. Some planets orbit two stars at once, and others circle the collapsed remains of dead stars.

The book profiles dozens of the most intriguing exoplanets discovered to date, from water worlds to planets that are in the process of evaporating. Its pages are packed with visual detail, and it is written as the first book of its kind for children.

Jessie Christiansen, science lead for the archive and a research scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech in Pasadena, notes that each exoplanet is a new world and that scientists know very little about most of them. That uncertainty is a large part of why she remains excited about every discovery.