Which telescopes have found the most exoplanets?

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.

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Key facts

Measure: Confirmed exoplanets found. Written from the data below.

  • Kepler has the highest figure, 2,787, followed by Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) (1,012) and K2 (550).
  • HATNet has the lowest figure, 67, followed by Haute-Provence Observatory (69) and HATSouth (73).
  • The highest is 42 times the lowest.

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Source and date

Source
NASA Exoplanet Archive, Planetary Systems Composite Data
License
Public domain (NASA data); this research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, operated by Caltech under contract with NASA
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “Which telescopes have found the most exoplanets?” 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 November 4, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/telescopes-that-found-the-most-exoplanets (accessed November 4, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Telescope or observatory Confirmed exoplanets found
Kepler 2,787
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) 1,012
K2 550
Multiple Observatories 355
La Silla Observatory 311
W. M. Keck Observatory 194
KMTNet 147
SuperWASP 122
OGLE 112
HATSouth 73
Haute-Provence Observatory 69
HATNet 67

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