Suggested Searches

3 min read

Tour 55 Cancri e in 360 Degrees, Get the Travel Poster and More

The headshot image of NASA Science Editorial Team

NASA Science Editorial Team

Feb 05, 2019
Article

While you can't actually travel to an exoplanet, these multimedia features are the next-best thing.

Two people float in a bubble above a lava surface in this illustration.
In a scene from the Exoplanet Travel Bureau poster for the exoplanet 55 Cancri e, also known as Jansen, tourists float above a lava surface in an imagined future.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Explore the plethora of planets outside our solar system with new multimedia experiences from NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP). In addition to a new Exoplanet Travel Bureau poster celebrating a molten world called 55 Cancri e, space fans can enjoy a 360-degree visualization of the surface of the same planet, a multimedia journey into the life and death of planetary systems, and a major update to the popular Eyes on Exoplanets app.

Lava Life

Designed in the style of vintage travel posters, ExEP’s popular Exoplanet Travel Bureau poster series imagines what it might be like to visit known planets outside our solar system, or exoplanets. Focusing on 55 Cancri e, a planet that may be covered in a lava ocean, the newest poster shows futuristic explorers gliding over the red-hot landscape in a protective bubble.

55 Cancri e poster
This Exoplanet Travel Bureau poster illustration shows futuristic explorers gliding in a protective bubble over the red-hot landscape of the exoplanet 55 Cancri e. Exoplanets are planets outside our solar system.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

55 Cancri e is also now part of the Exoplanet Travel Bureau’s 360-degree visualization tool, which enables you to take a virtual tour of what the planet’s surface might look like, based on the limited data available (no photos of the planet exist). Seen as a massive fiery orb on the horizon, the planet’s star is 65 times closer to 55 Cancri e than the Sun is to Earth. On the planet’s cooler nightside, silicate vapor in the atmosphere may condense into sparkling clouds that reflect the lava below.

An artistic representation of a lava-covered exoplanet.
This artist’s illustration from the Exoplanet Travel Bureau’s 360-degree visualization tool reveals what the surface of exoplanet 55 Cancri e might look like, based on the limited data available. This exoplanet (a planet outside our solar system) is thought to be covered entirely in molten lava.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

All of the 360-degree visualizations are viewable on desktop computers, mobile devices and through virtual reality headsets that work with smartphones.

Life and Death of a Solar System

How did we get here? How do stars and planets come into being, and what fate awaits planets after their stars die? The interactive web feature “Life and Death of a Planetary System” brings readers on an in-depth journey through the formation, evolution and eventual demise of a solar system. This multichapter story offers insight into how the planet we call home formed and what will happen to it when the Sun dies.

A 3D model of 55 Cancri e.
NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD)

Planet Bonanza

Explore thousands of new worlds, both strange and strangely familiar, with NASA’s Eyes on Exoplanets 2.0. Users can fly through the galaxy and virtually visit any of the nearly 4,000 known exoplanets, all visualized in 3-D. Interstellar ports of call include the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven Earth-sized planets, the potentially molten-lava-covered 55 Cancri e, the egg-shaped WASP-12b and Kepler-16b, the first world discovered orbiting two stars.

The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b is shown as blue in an artist's visualization.
This artist’s illustration of a planet in the TRAPPIST-1 system can be found in NASA’s Eyes on Exoplanets 2.0. The web-based program lets users virtually fly through the galaxy and visit any of the nearly 4,000 known exoplanets, all visualized in 3-D.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Among other features, the searchable Eyes on Exoplanets 2.0 lets users compare an exoplanet’s size to that of Earth or Jupiter; determine how long it would take to travel to a given planet by car, jet or light-speed starship; and interact with virtual models of NASA space telescopes, such as Hubble, Spitzer, Kepler and the newly launched Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

Eyes on Exoplanets 2.0 is powered by data from NASA’s Exoplanet Archive, the official database used by scientists researching exoplanets. Available for use on desktop computers as well as most smartphones and tablets, this next-generation, browser-based version of the popular app requires no software download.

An animated image of Eyes on Exoplanets interface showing stars of the Milky Way.
Fly through the Milky Way with NASA’s Eyes on Exoplanets 2.0.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Exoplanet Travel Bureau was developed by NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program communications team and program chief scientists. Based at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which is a division of Caltech, the program leads NASA’s search for habitable planets and life beyond our solar system. The program develops technology and mission concepts, maintains exoplanet data archives and conducts ground-based exoplanet science for NASA missions.

News Media Contact

Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov

Share

Details

Last Updated
Oct 28, 2024

Related Terms

Explore More

5 min read

Exoplanets Need to Be Prepared for Extreme Space Weather, Chandra Finds

Planets around other stars need to be prepared for extreme weather conditions, according to a…

Article 4 days ago
4 min read

NASA’s Pandora Mission One Step Closer To Probing Alien Atmospheres

Article 4 days ago
4 min read

NASA Successfully Integrates Roman Mission’s Telescope, Instruments

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully integrated the mission’s telescope and two…

Article 1 month ago
Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

Search for Life

Stars

Universe

Black Holes