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A Living Ledger of Other Worlds.
Strictly Empirical.

Exoplanet Ledger is a dedicated catalog of verified planets orbiting stars beyond our Solar System, synchronized directly from primary astrophysical surveys without commercial noise or sensationalism.

The Data Pipeline

Every record in Exoplanet Ledger originates from the NASA Exoplanet Archive, operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI).

We query the Archive's Table Access Protocol (TAP) endpoint using the composite parameters catalog (pscomppars). This table synthesizes validated planetary characteristics from published, peer-reviewed literature across major space observatories including Kepler, K2, TESS, Spitzer, and ground-based radial velocity spectrographs (e.g. HARPS, ESPRESSO).

Habitability & Classification Criteria

Popular media frequently labels distant planets as "Earth 2.0" based purely on loose orbital distance approximations. Exoplanet Ledger applies rigorous astrophysical boundaries:

Conservative Habitable Zone: Evaluated based on stellar flux (S_eff) models developed by Kopparapu et al., requiring an insolation level between 0.35 and 1.1 times the solar flux Earth receives, assuming an Earth-like atmosphere and greenhouse profile.
Terrestrial Composition Window: Planetary radius must not exceed 1.5 Earth radii (R_⊕). Above 1.6 R_⊕, planets almost universally retain substantial volatile envelopes (hydrogen/helium atmospheres) making them mini-Neptunes rather than rocky terrestrial surfaces.
System Architecture: Multi-planet systems are cataloged with relative orbital periods to reveal resonant chains (such as TRAPPIST-1's Laplace resonances).

Our Core Principles

Primary Sources Only: Direct synchronization with Caltech/NExScI and peer-reviewed journals.
Zero Commercial Incentives: No advertisements, no sponsored recommendations, and no paywalls.
Fast & Accessible: Built with zero-bloat vanilla PHP, CSS, and HTML, rendering instantaneously on desktop, mobile, and low-bandwidth connections.

The Astronomy Academy

Exoplanet Ledger operates as Station 02 within The Astronomy Academy, an open, non-commercial federation of specialized observational web services:

Cosmic Signal (Station 01): Peer-reviewed astrophysics discovery wire and reality checks.
Exoplanet Ledger (Station 02): Living catalog of confirmed worlds synchronized from the NASA Exoplanet Archive.
Deep Space Fleet (Station 03): Real-time interplanetary mission telemetry and astrometrics radar.
AstroWire (Station 04): High-energy transient astronomical event alerts (FRB, GW, GRB).
Cosmic Dossiers (Station 05): Deep-dive monographs on unresolved cosmological mysteries.

Hosting & Operation