UNDERSTANDING OTHER WORLDS
Can we photograph exoplanets?
Yes, a small subset has been directly imaged. Most familiar exoplanet pictures are artist’s impressions.
The contrast problem
Stars are much brighter than their planets. Coronagraphs and careful processing suppress starlight, making some young, warm and widely separated planets detectable.
What an image shows
A directly imaged planet often appears as a point of light. It does not reveal oceans, continents or cloud detail like pictures of Solar System planets.
Reading image labels
This atlas distinguishes direct images, observational images, artist’s impressions and site visualisations. Our procedural planet graphics convey a sense of a world; their colours and surface textures are not observations.