Guide to Exoplanets

Catalog of all known exoplanets. This list is going to get a lot bigger with the launch of the Kepler mission. [Link]

The planet-hunting game is shifting into high gear with the launch of NASA's $591 million Kepler mission, but how can you possibly keep track of all those alien worlds without a program? Fortunately, the Planetary Society has just the thing: a free online catalog of exoplanets that will keep up with a tally expected to escalate into the thousands.

The catalog is designed to cater to all types, ranging from avid fans who gobble up the vital stats for every newfound world to the casual spectator who may wonder what the heck an exoplanet is, said Bruce Betts, the nonprofit group's director of projects.

"We've tried to make it accessible," he told me today. And that means including an animated "trading card" for each of the 300-plus planets detected so far.

The whole database is automated, which will make it easy to update the catalog with fresh finds from Kepler as well as from its European counterpart, the Corot space telescope, and a phalanx of ground-based telescopes monitoring faraway planetary systems.