Exoplanet Types Graphic

Since a giant planet in a scorching orbit captured public attention in 1995, a sky full of strange and exotic exoplanets – planets orbiting other stars – has only grown richer in variety and detail.

Hot Jupiters, mini-Neptunes, “super-Earths,” planets with two or three suns in their skies, rocky planets drowned in global oceans of lava, planets where it might rain glass – these make up just a short list of oddities among more than 4,300 confirmed so far in our Milky Way galaxy.