{"chart":{"slug":"how-exoplanets-are-found","title":"How do astronomers find planets around other stars?","takeaway":"As of November 2026, 4,785 of the 6,451 confirmed exoplanets, about 74%, were found by the transit method: a telescope sees a star dim slightly as a planet passes in front of it. Radial velocity, which spots a star's slight wobble as a planet tugs on it, found 1,204. Only 98 have been photographed directly (imaging).","topic":"Space","chart_type":"bar","ranking":false,"x_label":"Discovery method","y_label":"Confirmed exoplanets","unit":null,"points_count":11,"source":{"name":"NASA Exoplanet Archive, Planetary Systems Composite Data","url":"https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/TblView/nph-tblView?app=ExoTbls\u0026config=PSCompPars"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (NASA data); this research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, operated by Caltech under contract with NASA","url":"https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/acknowledge.html"},"data_as_of":"2026-11-04","updated_at":"2026-11-04T17:25:03.826Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/how-exoplanets-are-found","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/how-exoplanets-are-found","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/how-exoplanets-are-found/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/how-exoplanets-are-found/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/how-exoplanets-are-found/embed","credit":"NASA Exoplanet Archive, Planetary Systems Composite Data, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/how-exoplanets-are-found)","credit_html":"NASA Exoplanet Archive, Planetary Systems Composite Data, via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/how-exoplanets-are-found\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":null,"zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"Transit","value":4785},{"label":"Radial Velocity","value":1204},{"label":"Microlensing","value":292},{"label":"Imaging","value":98},{"label":"Transit Timing Variations","value":29},{"label":"Eclipse Timing Variations","value":17},{"label":"Orbital Brightness Modulation","value":9},{"label":"Pulsar Timing","value":8},{"label":"Astrometry","value":6},{"label":"Pulsation Timing Variations","value":2},{"label":"Disk Kinematics","value":1}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"NASA Exoplanet Archive, Planetary Systems Composite Data, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/how-exoplanets-are-found)"}