Chart assignment
Charts to read and discuss
Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.
Chart 1 of 1 · Space
Which telescopes have found the most exoplanets?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
NASA's Kepler space telescope found 2,787 confirmed exoplanets, and 550 more on K2, the second mission it flew after a breakdown in 2013. NASA's TESS, launched in 2018, had found 1,012 as of November 2026; the most of any facility is Kepler's 2,787. "Multiple Observatories" means several shared the discovery.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: NASA Exoplanet Archive, Planetary Systems Composite Data (Public domain (NASA data); this research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, operated by Caltech under contract with NASA) · Data as of Nov 4, 2026
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