How do astronomers find planets around other stars?
As of September 2026, 4,708 of the 6,366 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 1,200. Only 97 have been photographed directly (imaging).
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Key facts
Measure: Confirmed exoplanets. Written from the data below.
- Transit has the highest figure, 4,781, followed by Radial Velocity (1,203) and Microlensing (292).
- Disk Kinematics has the lowest figure, 1, followed by Pulsation Timing Variations (2) and Astrometry (6).
- The highest is 4,781 times the lowest.
Source and date
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- Published
Citation
Chartly. “How do astronomers find planets around other stars?” Chart. Data: NASA Exoplanet Archive, Planetary Systems Composite Data, https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/TblView/nph-tblView?app=ExoTbls&config=PSCompPars (data as of October 15, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/how-exoplanets-are-found (accessed October 15, 2026).
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The data
Download data (CSV)The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.
| Discovery method | Confirmed exoplanets |
|---|---|
| Transit | 4,781 |
| Radial Velocity | 1,203 |
| Microlensing | 292 |
| Imaging | 97 |
| Transit Timing Variations | 29 |
| Eclipse Timing Variations | 17 |
| Orbital Brightness Modulation | 9 |
| Pulsar Timing | 8 |
| Astrometry | 6 |
| Pulsation Timing Variations | 2 |
| Disk Kinematics | 1 |
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