NASA finds 6,000 alien planets

NASA has published a dazzling new image
of our Milky Way galaxy showing confirmed
and candidate exoplanets, courtesy of its
TESS space telescope, launched in 2018

RECTANGULAR PROJECTION (released May 13, 2026)
Compiled from 96 scanned sectors – Apr 2018-Sep 2025

Confirmed exoplanet 
Candidate exoplanet

Black areas are regions TESS has not yet imaged

Transiting Exoplanet
Survey Satellite (TESS)

Four cameras: Scan
area of space 400
times larger than
that covered by
NASA’s previous
exoplanet-hunting
Kepler satellite

Large Magellanic Cloud:
Dwarf satellite galaxy of
Milky Way – 163,000
light-years away

FINDING EXOPLANETS
TESS detects tiny changes
in brightness caused by
transit of planets across
face of stars

Plane of Milky Way

BRIGHTNESS

TIME

STAR

Planet

Light

WHAT IS EXOPLANET?
Any planet beyond our solar
system. Scientists believe there
are billions of them – some with life

NEWEST EXOPLANET
Since above image was created,
among newest discoveries is TOI-1752 c
– Neptune-like planet, shown here for size
comparison between Earth and Jupiter

Source: BBC Sky at Night Magazine, NASA, MIT
Pictures: NASA/MIT/TESS and Veselin Kostov (University of Maryland College Park)
© GRAPHIC NEWS