Eyes on Exoplanets tutorial

Welcome to Eyes on Exoplanets, a 3D interactive tool for exploring the stars beyond the Sun where planets known as exoplanets have been found. Pick a star or planet to see an artist’s concept and spin it to view its sun and planetary system. You can even learn how long a trip there would take at light speed, by jet plane, or by family car.

The default view is from space, but you can search for a specific star or exoplanet, or switch to View from Earth to choose your location and see what’s in the sky above you right now. In the lower right corner, display options let you show constellations, only naked-eye stars, or stars that future space telescopes will target — those targets appear as filled-in circles.

Click the gear and change the star symbol to a circled number to reveal how many exoplanets have been found around a given star. Selecting a star offers three view modes. System View shows the star and planet locations with a shaded green habitable zone and a comparison to our solar system.

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