The team behind the Kepler spacetelescope has published this family-portrait of the 1235 exoplanets they have found so far

The Kepler Science Team announced 1.235 planet candidates February 1, 2011. Some candidates may not be planets. Instead, they may be false positives that look like transiting planets, but are not. Many scientists do follow-up observing with ground-based telescopes to confirm discoveries. Confirmed planets are announced as discoveries. The June 2010 data on Planet Candidates are available at MAST. The February 2011 data tables are available in the scientific paper, and will soon be posted at MAST.

Using the prolific planet hunting Kepler spacecraft, astronomers have discovered 1.235 planet candidates orbiting other suns since the Kepler mission's search for Earth-like worlds began in 2009. To find them, Kepler monitors a rich star field to identify planetary transits by the slight dimming of starlight caused by a planet crossing the face of its parent star. In this remarkable illustration created by Jason Rowe of NASA's Kepler Science Team, all of Kepler's planet candidates are shown in transit with their parent stars ordered by size from top left to bottom right. Simulated stellar disks and the silhouettes of transiting planets are all shown at the same relative scale, with saturated star colors. Of course, some stars show more than one planet in transit, but you may have to examine the picture at high resolution to spot them all. For reference, the Sun is shown at the same scale, by itself below the top row on the right. In silhouette against the Sun's disk, both Jupiter and Earth are in transit.

1,235 Planet Candidates — The Science Story

On February 1, 2011, BIll Borucki, Kepler's Principal Investigator, announced 1,235 planet candidates found in the first four months of Kepler observations. Prior to his announcement, about 500 exoplanets had been discovered by astronomers using all methods. Link to the press conference, announcement, and scientific publication in NASA Kepler News.

SEE VIDEO of the planets orbital motions