Planet

Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Realm / Physical / Universe / Planetary System / Planet
—————————

planet : any of the large bodies that revolve around a star — Merriam-Webster See also OneLook

Thesaurus

Roget’s II (Thesaurus.com), Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Visuwords

Encyclopedia

Planet A planet is a large astronomical body that is neither a star nor a stellar remnant. — Wikipedia

Planet (COSMOS: The SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy)

Exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, initially detected in 1988, was confirmed in 2003. As of 2022, there are more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets. — Wikipedia

NASA (YouTube Channel)
NASA (Official Website)

The Discovery of Planets Outside our Solar System (Space and Beyond Box)
Planets of Other Stars (Encyclopædia Britannica)

———————–

Adventures

Explore related posts on Cosma …

Exoplanet Junket - This week NASA released a new project that they’ve dubbed the Exoplanet Travel Bureau. The core of the project consists of a set of interactive 360° images that show “imagined” surfaces of five exoplanets (TRAPPIST-1e, Kepler-16b, Kepler-186f, PSO J318.5-22 and HD 40307 g). Here are three articles about the experience. This Brilliant Interactive From NASA … Continue reading Exoplanet Junket
TRAPPIST-1 - You’ve probably heard that NASA has found a trove of “Earth-like” planets circling the TRAPPIST-1 system roughly 40 light years away, but just in case you haven’t, here’s a short video from NASA/JPL about the discovery. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (YouTube Channel) NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Official Website) Most entertainingly, here’s a 360° YouTube video … Continue reading TRAPPIST-1

———————–

Inspiration

On June 13, 2019, the number of known exoplanets passed 4000 according to the NASA Exoplanet Archive! This animation celebrates their discoveries in time and converted them into music. A circle appears at the position of each exoplanet as it is discovered with a colour that indicates which method was used to find it. The size of the circle indicates the relative size of the planet’s orbit and the pitch of the note indicates the relative orbital period of the planet. Planets with longer orbital periods (lower orbital frequencies) are heard as low notes and planets with shorter orbital periods (higher orbital frequencies) are heard as higher notes. The volume and intensity of the note depends on how many planets with similar orbital periods were announced at the same time. The discovery of a single planet will be quiet and soft while the discovery of many planets with similar periods is loud and intense. — SYSTEM Sounds

Note: This is a 360° Video — press and hold to explore it!

SYSTEM Sounds (YouTube Channel)

Astronomy Picture of the Day, APOD Videos (YouTube Channel)

One Map, 4,000 Exoplanets (Daisy Hernandez, Popular Mechanics)

Eyes on Exoplanets enables users to zoom in on more than 1000 planets orbiting distant stars. Exoplanets can be filtered by relevant criteria such as Earth-sized, large rocky planets, gas giants, etc. Distances to these planets are expressed in travel time by car, plane, etc. — Eyes on the Exoplanets

JPLPlanetQuest (YouTube Channel)
Exoplanets Exploration (NASA Science, Official Website)

Eyes on the Exoplanets (NASA’s JPL & Cal Tech)

Exoplanet Travel Bureau provides different ways to explore features of different exoplanets, including:
360-degree visualizations of planets outside our Solar System
Posters with facts about different exoplanets
Coloring pages of the same posters
Background about NASA space telescopes
Information about discovering and studying exoplanets — Exoplanet Travel Bureau (NASA)

Exoplanet Travel Bureau (NASA)

Talks about Planets (TED: Ideas Worth Spreading)
Articles about Planets (Big Think)

———————-

Innovation

Mathematics

The Math Behind Discovering Exoplanets (David Grossman, Popular Mechanics)

Science

Planetary science (or more rarely, planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), celestial bodies (such as moons, asteroids, comets) and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes of their formation. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation, interrelations and history. — Wikipedia

Planetary Sciences (NASA JPL)

James Webb Space Telescope (NASA, YouTube Channel)
James Webb Space Telescope (NASA, Official Website)

Planet Formation Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)

Planet Formation (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy)

The Universe, Explained (Minute Physics, YouTube Playlist)
Minute Physics (Henry Reich, Official Website)

Detecting Other Worlds: Direct Imaging (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)
Detecting Other Worlds: Transiting Exoplanet Interactive (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)

Science Education Videos (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, YouTube Playlist)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Official Website)

Exoplanet Exploration (NASA)
Exoplanets (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, YouTube Playlist)
NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI)

Exoplanet Data Explorer (California & Carnegie Planet Search)
California Planet Survey (California & Carnegie Planet Search)
Lick–Carnegie Exoplanet Survey (Wikipedia)

Exoplanets (SciShow Space, YouTube Playlist)

Exoplanets Videos (ViewSpace, Space Telescope Science Institute)

The Exoplanets Channel (YouTube Channel)
Habitable Exoplanets Catalog (The Exoplanets Channel Official Website)

Naming of Exoplanets (International Astronomical Union)

Exoplanets, Worlds Orbiting Other Stars (Planetary Society)

Extrasolar Planets (Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy, Wolfram Research)
Exoplanets (Wolfram Alpha)

Exoplanets Links (California & Carnegie Planet Search)

————————–

Preservation

—————————

Participation

ScienceAtNASA (YouTube Channel)
NASA Science (Official Website)

NASA Needs Our Help to Find Exoplanets (Stephanie Mlot, PC Magazine)
Exoplanet Watch (NASA Exoplanet Exploration)

Naming of Exoplanets (International Astronomical Union)

Education

NASA Space Place (YouTube Channel)
NASA Space Place (Official Website)

What is a Planet? (Space Place, NASA)
What Is an Exoplanet? (Space Place, NASA)

Other Solar Systems, Other Earths Interactive (NASA’s Universe of Learning)

Teach with Exoplanets (European Space Agency)

Planets (Science Trek)
Exoplanets (Science Trek)

Planets (Space Scoop)

Planetary Science (National Association of Geoscience Teachers)

The Search for Extrasolar Planets (Introduction to Astronomy, Wolfgang H. Berger, UC San Diego)

Exoplanet Learning Resources (National Air and Space Museum)

Exoplanets (Astronomy Center, ComPADRE)

Exoplanets (CrashCourse, YouTube Video)

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Course

Physics and Chemistry of Terrestrial Planets (Benjamin Weiss & Leigh Royden, MIT OpenCourseware)

Community

Occupation

Careers in Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences (Purdue University)

Organization

International Astronomical Union (IAU)
Minor Planet Center (International Astronomical Union)
Division for Planetary Sciences (American Astronomical Society)
Exoplanets Section (British Astronomical Association)
The Planetary Society

News

Plantary Science Journal (American Astronomical Society)

Planet (Nova Research Highlights, American Astronomical Society)
Planet Formation (Nova Research Highlights, American Astronomical Society)
Exoplanets (Nova Research Highlights, American Astronomical Society)

Planetary Science (Nature)

The Planetary Society News
The Planetary Report

Planet (EurekaAlert, AAAS)
Exoplanet (EurekaAlert, AAAS)

Planets (JSTOR)
Exoplanets (JSTOR)

Exoplanets News (NASA)
Exoplanets (Sky & Telescope)
Exoplanets (Astronomy Magazine)

Extrasolar Planets (Science Daily)
Exoplanet (Science News)
Exoplanet (Phys.org)

Government

Planetary Science (United States Geological Survey)

———————-

Expression

AstroCappella (YouTube Channel)
AstroCappella: A Musical Exploration of the Universe (Official Site)
The Chromatics: Full Spectrum A Cappella (Official Site)

A Capella Science (YouTube Channel)
A Capella Science (Official Website)

Recent News from Phys.org …

JWST hunts for an 'Earth-moon' twin in a...
on April 28, 2026 at 12:20 am
The moon has played a huge role in the development of Earth. It stabilizes the planet, tempers dramatic climate swings, and possibly even provides the tidal heating that might have led to the first life forms. So it's natural we would want to find a similar Earth/Luna system somewhere else in the cosmos. But astronomers have been searching for one for years at this point to no avail. And a new paper, available on the arXiv preprint server, from Emily Pass and her colleagues at MIT, Harvard, and […]
Two suns are better than one—planets thrive...
on April 27, 2026 at 4:40 pm
Planets may actually form more easily around double stars than around single stars like our sun, according to new research from astrophysicists at the University of Lancashire. Binary stars are common in our galaxy, yet for a long time astronomers believed that the gravitational tug-of-war between two stars would make it harder for circumbinary planets, worlds that orbit both stars, to form. Famous fictional worlds such as Tatooine from Star Wars, with its iconic twin sunsets, were thought to […]
The planet haul that changes everything
on April 27, 2026 at 11:40 am
Finding planets used to be a painstaking business. Astronomers would fix their gaze on a handful of carefully chosen stars, watch and wait, and hope to catch the faint dip in starlight that signals a world passing in front of its host. It worked. It worked brilliantly. But it also meant we were fishing with a very small net in a very big ocean.
Tandem superflare observations reveal origin of...
on April 27, 2026 at 9:00 am
The Fe Kα line, or iron Kα line, is often used in astronomical research to understand the physical composition of astronomical objects. This line is produced when a K-shell electron of an iron ion in the photosphere—the gas on the stellar surface—is ejected by an external process, and has been detected in X-ray spectra of solar and stellar flares. Yet the dominant mechanism behind this ionization process has remained an open question for many years.
Stellar flares may expand habitable zones around...
on April 22, 2026 at 11:00 pm
The search for life beyond Earth has traditionally focused on exoplanets orbiting sun-like stars, which is a G-type star. However, low-mass stars, which are designated as K-type and M-type stars, have rapidly become a target for astrobiology, primarily due to their much longer lifetimes. This also means the habitable zone (HZ), which is the distance from a star where liquid water could exist, is much smaller than our solar system's HZ, and is referred to as the liquid water habitable zone […]