Exoplanets: A Visual Guide to the Worlds Outside Our Solar System

You know all about the planets near Earth, but what about the planets outside our solar system? How are they discovered? Could there be life? Find out in Exoplanets!

A 2024 Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year

“Thesaturated colors of pop art marry with swirling watercolors and sharp geometricshapes in this picture book that’s perfect for budding scientists.”―ForewordReviews

NASA has confirmed the existence of over 5,000 exoplanets (planets that lie outside of our solar system), and that number is growing! Exoplanets, the first book of its kind for kids, is a visually packed guidebook to the exoplanets of our universe. You’ll learn the four main types of exoplanets, techniques scientists use to discover them, the probability of finding life as we know it beyond Earth, plus detailed information about dozens of some of the most fascinating exoplanets discovered so far, from water worlds to planets that are literally evaporating! It’s a thrilling journey, and it all begins in Exoplanets!

From NASA.gov:

The 5,000-plus planets found so far include small,rocky worlds like Earth, gas giants many times larger than Jupiter, and “hot Jupiters”in scorchingly close orbits around their stars. There are “super-Earths,” whichare possible rocky worlds bigger than our own, and “mini-Neptunes,” smallerversions of our system’s Neptune. Add to the mix planets orbiting two stars atonce and planets stubbornly orbiting the collapsed remnants of dead stars.

“It’s not just a number,” said Jessie Christiansen,science lead for the archive and a research scientist with the NASA ExoplanetScience Institute at Caltech in Pasadena. “Each one of them is a new world, abrand-new planet. I get excited about every one because we don’t know anythingabout them.”

Wendy Bjazevich is the author of Sleep: A Kid's Guide to the Science of Slumber; Exoplanets: A Visual Guide to the Worlds Outside Our Solar System; and the Green and Small series. A science enthusiast, she received a B.S. in sociology and health education from Brigham Young University and a Master of Forensic Sciences from George Washington University. Wendy enjoys spending time with her husband and six children.

David Miles is an award-winning and best-selling author and illustrator of more than forty books, including The Side-by-Side Declaration of Independence, The Interactive Constitution, Allegro, Unicorn and Horse, and other titles. He has worked as a designer, illustrator, and creative director, and he now runs Bushel & Peck Books with his wife, Stephanie. He's been named a CYBILS Award Finalist, Publishers Weekly Star Watch Nominee, Trust Changemaker, New York Book Show Award Winner, and Bill Fisher Award Finalist, among other accolades. He lives in Fresno, California, with his family.