As of March 2025, the ExoFOP team confirmed the exoplanet data archive surpassed 1 million files submitted by more than 1,700 community members.  

The ExoFOP program, run by NASA’s Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI), helps researchers work together on new exoplanet discoveries. Confirming the existence of an exoplanet requires multiple follow-up observations and community consensus. In a sign of how ExoFOP enables this collaboration, data submitted through the platform has contributed to the discovery and characterization of approximately two-thirds of the nearly 6,000 confirmed exoplanets NExScI has logged to date. 

ExoFOP began in 2008 to support the mission team for NASA’s now-retired Kepler space telescope. Since then, it has expanded to become a data sharing platform for the entire exoplanet science community, encompassing observations from other exoplanet-hunting missions such as NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). ExoFOP contributors process data from these missions to calculate photometric information, radial velocity measurements, stellar parameters, and other critical measurements for exoplanet research. 

With future missions like NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and Habitable Worlds Observatory poised to deliver ever-increasing amounts of exoplanet data, community efforts will continue to play a central role in scouring the data for new discoveries. ExoFOP is well positioned to take advantage of this exciting future for exoplanet data. 

To view data in ExoFOP and submit your own files, visit the ExoFOP website. For more information about this exoplanet data milestone, read the IPAC media release from June 7.