juliensimon/nasa-exoplanets

NASA Exoplanet Archive

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.

Dataset description

Confirmed exoplanets with orbital, stellar, and discovery parameters from the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

The NASA Exoplanet Archive is the authoritative database of confirmed exoplanets, maintained by Caltech/IPAC under contract with NASA. Each entry represents a confirmed planet with its best-available physical and orbital parameters, host star properties, and discovery information. This dataset uses the Planetary Systems (ps) table with default_flag=1 to select one row per planet with the default parameter set.

The discovery of exoplanets has transformed our understanding of planetary systems and the prevalence of worlds beyond our own. The first confirmed detection around a Sun-like star came in 1995 with 51 Pegasi b, a "hot Jupiter" whose unexpectedly close orbit challenged existing theories of planet formation. Since then, the transit method -- measuring the tiny dip in stellar brightness as a planet crosses its host star -- has become the dominant discovery technique, largely thanks to the Kepler and TESS space telescopes.

The dataset includes key physical parameters such as orbital period, planet radius and mass, equilibrium temperature, orbital eccentricity, and semi-major axis, alongside host star properties like effective temperature, radius, mass, and distance. These parameters are fundamental to characterizing planetary systems: radius and mass together constrain bulk composition (rocky vs. gaseous), equilibrium temperature indicates potential habitability, and eccentricity reveals dynamical history.

This data underpins a wide range of astrophysical research, from occurrence rate calculations (how common are Earth-like planets?) to atmospheric characterization target selection for JWST and future missions.

This dataset is suitable for tabular classification, tabular regression tasks.

Schema

Column	Type	Description	Sample	Null %
pl_name	str	Planet designation in the form 'Host b/c/d...' (e.g. 'Kepler-452 b'); alphabetical suffixes distinguish planets within the same system	DMPP-2 d	0.0%
hostname	str	Host star identifier; multiple rows share the same hostname in multi-planet systems	DMPP-2	0.0%
discoverymethod	str	Detection technique: 'Transit' (brightness dip), 'Radial Velocity' (Doppler shift), 'Direct Imaging', 'Microlensing', 'Astrometry', or 'Timing'; determines which physical parameters are measurable	Radial Velocity	0.0%
disc_year	Int64	Calendar year of confirmed discovery; ranges from 1992 (pulsar planets) to present	2026	0.0%
disc_facility	str	Observatory or mission that made the discovery (e.g. 'Kepler', 'TESS', 'La Silla Observatory')	Multiple Observatories	0.0%
pl_orbper	float64	Orbital period in days; hot Jupiters: 1-5 days, Earth analogs: ~365 days, outer giants: years; null for directly imaged planets without an orbit solution	16.491	5.8%
pl_rade	float64	Planet radius in Earth radii; sub-Earths: <1, super-Earths: 1-1.5, mini-Neptunes: 1.5-4, Neptunes: 4-7, Jupiters: >7; null if no transit or imaging measurement available	18.18	25.5%
pl_bmasse	float64	Best-available planet mass in Earth masses; actual mass if inclination is known, otherwise M sin(i) from radial velocity; rocky: <10, Neptune-class: 10-50, Jupiter: ~318; null for transit-only detections without RV follow-up	91.79	50.1%
pl_eqt	float64	Planet equilibrium temperature in Kelvin assuming zero albedo; Earth's T_eq ~ 255 K; habitable zone range ~ 200-300 K; null if stellar temperature or semi-major axis is unavailable	1891.0	72.3%
pl_orbsmax	float64	Orbital semi-major axis in AU; sets stellar irradiation flux and equilibrium temperature; null for planets with only transit period and no stellar mass estimate	0.1432	38.1%
pl_orbeccen	float64	Orbital eccentricity (0 = circular, <1 = elliptical); most short-period planets are tidally circularized (e ~ 0); null for planets discovered by transit alone without RV characterization	0.1	57.6%
st_teff	float64	Host star effective temperature in Kelvin; M dwarfs: 2500-4000 K, K dwarfs: 4000-5200 K, G dwarfs (Sun-like): 5200-6000 K, F dwarfs: 6000-7500 K	7287.0	12.1%
st_rad	float64	Host star radius in solar radii; required to convert observed transit depth into absolute planet radius	1.62	13.2%
st_mass	float64	Host star mass in solar masses; used with orbital period to compute semi-major axis via Kepler's third law	1.41	13.8%
sy_dist	float64	System distance in parsecs from Earth; derived from Gaia parallax when available; needed to assess planet detectability and calculate absolute stellar luminosity	137.94	2.0%
sy_vmag	float64	Host star apparent V-band (optical) magnitude; brighter stars (lower values) are better targets for atmospheric characterization and RV follow-up	8.57	5.0%
ra	float64	Right ascension in decimal degrees (ICRS J2000.0); range 0-360	27.407731	0.0%
dec	float64	Declination in decimal degrees (ICRS J2000.0); range -90 to +90	-34.4590985	0.0%
rowupdate	str	ISO date of the most recent parameter update in the NASA Exoplanet Archive for this row	2026-03-05	0.0%

Quick stats

• 6,375 confirmed exoplanets
• Most recent discovery: DMPP-2 d (2026)

By discovery method

Method	Count
Transit	4,711
Radial Velocity	1,203
Microlensing	292
Imaging	97
Transit Timing Variations	29
Eclipse Timing Variations	17
Orbital Brightness Modulation	9
Pulsar Timing	8

Recent discoveries by year

Year	Count
2026	285
2025	246
2024	260
2023	323
2022	367
2021	564
2020	234
2019	194
2018	308
2017	152

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/nasa-exoplanets", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/nasa-exoplanets", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Earth-like candidates: rocky, in habitable zone
habitable = df[
    (df["pl_rade"] < 1.6) &
    (df["pl_eqt"] > 200) & (df["pl_eqt"] < 310)
]
print(f"{len(habitable)} potentially habitable planets")

# Transit vs radial velocity discoveries over time
transit = df[df["discoverymethod"] == "Transit"]
rv = df[df["discoverymethod"] == "Radial Velocity"]

# Planets by discovery facility
top_facilities = df["disc_facility"].value_counts().head(10)

Data source

https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

Related datasets

• juliensimon/tess-toi-candidates

• juliensimon/kepler-eclipsing-binaries

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About the author

Created by Julien Simon — AI Operating Partner at Fortino Capital. Part of the Space Datasets collection.

Citation

@dataset{nasa_exoplanets,
  title = {NASA Exoplanet Archive},
  author = {Simon, Julien},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/nasa-exoplanets},
  note = {Derived from NASA Exoplanet Archive, IPAC/Caltech, https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0