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exoplanet mission timeline
a journey of humanity's discoveries
1990
Hubble
Changed humanity’s fundamental understanding of the universe through investigating the atmospheric composition of exoplanets and discovering dark energy.
NASA & ESA
2003
Spitzer
Studying exoplanet signatures in infrared light, it was the fourth and last of NASA’s “Great Observatories.” Spitzer probed the heavens for over 16 years.
NASA
2006
COROT
As an important stepping stone in the European effort to search for other habitable, Earth-like planets, it pioneered stellar seismology and exoplanet hunting missions. It was the first mission capable of detecting rocky planets that are several times larger than Earth.
ESA & CNES
2009
Kepler/K2
As NASA’s first planet-hunting mission, it is a targeted search for terrestrial and larger planets in or near the habitable zone of stars. Its findings proved that the Milky Way galaxy contains billions of hidden exoplanets, revolutionizing humanity’s understanding of their place in the universe.
NASA
2013
Gaia
Through its all-sky survey of position, brightness and motion of over a billion stars, it built the largest, most precise three-dimensional map of the galaxy.
ESA
2018
TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)
It is the first transit survey satellite that discovers worlds beyond the solar system. It also finds and investigates all types of objects that change in brightness, such as stars, asteroids, and distant galaxies containing supernovae.
NASA
2019
Cheops
Its main objective is the characterization of known Earth to Neptune-size exoplanets.
ESA
2021
James Webb Space Telescope
Through transit studies and direct imaging, it provides a detailed characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. Orbiting the sun, Webb studies every phase of the universe’s history.
NASA, ESA, CSA/ASC
2026
Plato
PLAnetary Transits and Oscillation of stars. It studies and characterizes terrestrial planets in orbits up to the habitable zone of Sun-like stars.
ESA
2027
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
Named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, Roman specializes in the areas of exoplanets, dark energy, and infrared astrophysics
NASA
2029
Ariel
Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey. It will analyze exoplanets’ atmospheres and do a chemical census of a large sample of exoplanets.
ESA
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