Alien Worlds

Exoplanet Travel Bureau

This set of travel posters envision a day when the creativity of scientists and engineers will allow us to do things we can only dream of now. Guided tours in English and Spanish and 360° visualizations and mission posters.

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A retro looking travel poster for the exoplanet Kepler-16b shows a human standing on a rocky world with two suns large in the foreground. There is a larger white-yellowish sun, with a smaller orang sun. The person, seen from behind, has two criss-crossing shadows between an outcropping of rocks, reminiscent of the American Southwest. Like Luke Skywalker's planet "Tatooine" in Star Wars, Kepler-16b orbits a pair of stars. Kepler-16b is a gas giant, like Saturn, so it would have no solid surface to stand on. The view here is of and from an imagined nearby moon. Prospects for life on this unusual world aren't good, as it has a temperature similar to that of dry ice.
An imagined view from a moon of the exoplanet Kepler-16 b.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Strange New Worlds

Interact With Exoplanets

Explore an interactive gallery of some of the most intriguing and exotic planets discovered so far.

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This artist's concept depicts giant planets circling between belts of dust. Scientists think the star system HD 95086 may have a planetary architecture similar to this. While the star system's two dust belts are known, along with one massive planet, more giant planets may lurk unseen. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Scientists think the star system HD 95086 may have a planetary architecture similar to this – the star system's two dust belts are known, along with one massive planet, but more giant planets may lurk unseen.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Historic Timeline

A planetary tour through time. The ancients debated the existence of planets beyond our own; now we know of thousands.

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A large Renaissance-era painting depicts dozens of individuals clad in long robes of different colors, conferring in small groups, in a large marbe hall, beneath a domed ceiling and amid marble statues.
"The School of Athens" depicts an imagined gathering of ancient philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists, with Plato and his student, Aristotle, standing at center, and others thought to include Socrates, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Heraclitus, and Ptolemy.
Raphael (1483-1520)