The Database and Data Explorer

The Exoplanet Data Explorer is an interactive table and plotter for exploring and displaying data from the Exoplanet Orbit Database. The Exoplanet Orbit Database is a carefully constructed compilation of quality, spectroscopic orbital parameters of exoplanets orbiting normal stars from the peer-reviewed literature, and updates the Catalog of Nearby Exoplanets. Since it includes results from numerous exoplanet surveys, it necessarily represents detections from surveys with different selection effects and sensitivities. We have adopted a generous minimum mass cutoff of 24 Jupiter masses for inclusion in the catalog. It is a conservative collection by design, including only the most secure and peer-reviewed exoplanet orbital measurements; it is not intended as a clearinghouse of all exoplanet announcements (for a list of all known exoplanets, visit the indispensable Exoplanet Encyclopedia in the Links section). Because the Exoplanet Orbit Database is a compilation of measured spectroscopic orbital parameters, it does not include most planets detected through microlensing or other methods lacking spectroscopic orbits.

For a detailed discussion of the methodology employed in constructing and vetting the Exoplanets Orbit Database, please visit the Methodology page.

Throughout this documentation we will refer to the Exoplanet Data Explorer Table simply as the Table and the Exoplanet Data Explorer Plotter simply as the Plotter. In addition we will refer to the Exoplanet Orbit Database simply as the database.

This documentation isn't your only available resource if you need help using the Exoplanet Data Explorer! Almost every clickable item in the Data Explorer has a tooltip associated with it -- simply hover your mouse to learn more. Also, any questions can be directed to the webmaster.

Database Structure

The fundamental object in the Database is the planet and each row in the Table corresponds to a distinct planet. The Database defines a number of properties for each planet - columns in the Table correspond to these properties. These properties describe a number of features unique to each planet, such as the planet's orbital period and minimum mass, while others describe features related to the planet's star, such as the stellar mass and the RA/DEC coordinates. The Database does not provide distinct star objects, rather planets in the same stellar system will have their star-related properties set to identical values.

The following is a list of all the properties in the database. The property ID is the unique variable name associated with each property and is used when constructing filters in the Table and Plotter. When writing your own filters you may refer to this table for these IDs.

Property	Property ID	Description
Name	NAME	Standard Name for the star + planet name.
Planet Name	COMP	lower case letter, b, c, d, designates planets in order of discovery.
Components	NCOMP	Number of planets known in the system.
Multiple Flag	MULT	Multiple planets (1) or only a single planet (0).
Method of Discovery	DISCMETH	Potential fields are Transit and RV
First Reference	FIRSTREF	First peer reviewed published orbit.
URL of first reference	FIRSTURL	URL of first peer reviewed published orbit.
First Publication Date	DATE	First publication date.
EPE Link	JSNAME	Link to this planet in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia (exoplanet.eu) database.
ETD Link	ETDNAME	Link to this planet in the Exoplanet Transit Database (var2.astro.cz/ETD).
Orbital Period	PER	The orbital period of the planet.
Uncertainty in Period	UPER	Uncertainty in PER.
Time of Periastron	T0	The time of one periastron passage of the planet in JD.
Uncertainty in time of periaston	UT0	Uncertainty in T0.
Orbital Eccentricity	ECC	The eccentricity of the orbit, on the usual scale of 0 to 1, where 0 is circular and 1 is extremely flattened.
Uncertainty in orbital eccentricity	UECC	Uncertainty in ECC.
Asymmetric uncertainty in orbital eccentricity	UECCD	Asymmetric uncertainty in ECC.
Argument of Periastron	OM	Angle between the line of nodes and the line from star to the planet at periastron, in the plane of the orbit.
Uncertainty in longitude of periaston	UOM	Uncertainty in OM.
Velocity Semiamplitude	K	The semiamplitude of the Doppler variation (half of the peak-to-peak radial velocity variation.).
Uncertainty in velocity semiamplitude	UK	Uncertainty in K.
Msin(i)	MSINI	Minimum mass of planet. True masses are typically higher by about 15% due to the geometric effects of inclination.
Uncertainty in Msin(i)	UMSINI	Uncertainty in MSINI.
Semi-Major Axis	A	Semi-major axis.
Uncertainty in Orbital Radius	UA	Uncertainty in A.
Orbit Reference	ORBREF	Reference to orbit in this table.
URL of Orbit Reference	ORBURL	URL of orbit reference.
Transit	TRANSIT	0 indicates that no transit is known, 1 indicates that a transit of the planet was seen.
Duration of Transit	T14	Duration of transit (1st to 4th contact)
Uncertainty in Duration of Transit	UT14	Uncertainty in T14.
Epoch of Transit Center	TT	Epoch (time) of transit center [JD-2440000]
Uncertainty in epoch of transit center	UTT	Uncertainty in TT.
a/R_*	AR	The ratio of the semimajor axis of a planet to the stellar radius.
Uncertainty in a/R_*	UAR	Uncertainty in AR.
Asymmetric uncertainty in a/R_*	UARD	Asymmetric uncertainty in AR.
Orbit Inclination	I	Inclination of orbit (transits only)
Uncertainty in Inclination of Orbit	UI	Uncertainty in I.
Asymmetric uncertainty in Inclination of Orbit	UID	Asymmetric uncertainty in I.
Impact Parameter	B	Impact parameter [stellar radii]
Uncertainty in Impact Parameter	UB	Uncertainty in B.
Asymmetric uncertainty in Impact Parameter	UBD	Asymmetric uncertainty in B.
Transit Depth	DEPTH	Transit depth [(R_p/R_star)² - i.e. dimensionless]
Uncertainty in Transit Depth	UDEPTH	Uncertainty in DEPTH.
Asymmetric uncertainty in Transit Depth	UDEPTHD	Asymmetric uncertainty in DEPTH.
Planetary Radius	R	Planetary radius.
Uncertainty in Planetary Radius	UR	Uncertainty in R.
Planetary Density	DENSITY	Planetary density.
Uncertainty in Planetary Density	UDENSITY	Uncertainty in DENSITY.
Surface Gravity	GRAVITY	Planetary surface gravity [log₁₀(cm/s^2)]
Uncertainty in Surface Gravity	UGRAVITY	Uncertainty in GRAVITY.
Transit Reference	TRANSITREF	Reference(s) for transit parameters.
URL of transit reference	TRANSITURL	URL of reference(s) for transit parameters.
Flag for linear Trend	TREND	Flag indicating that a linear trend was (1) or was not (0) added to the Keplerian mode, usually indicating a second, distant orbiting companion.
Velocity Slope	DVDT	Residual, linear trend in velocities due to additional, long period companions.
Uncertainty in longitude of periaston	UDVDT	Uncertainty in DVDT.
Frozen Eccentricity Flag	FREEZE_ECC	0 implies the eccentricity was allowed to float; 1 implies the eccentricity was frozen in the Keplerian model.
RMS of Velocities	RMS	The RMS of the velocity residuals to the Keplerian model.
Reduced Chi Squared	CHI2	Reduced chi-square of the velocities (including jitter).
# of Observations	NOBS	Number of Doppler observations.
Star Name	STAR	Standard Name for the star.
HD #	HD	Number in Henry Draper catalog
HR #	HR	Number in Bright Star Catalog.
Hipparcos Catalog #	HIPP	Number of star in Hipparcos Catalog.
SAO Catalog #	SAO	Number in Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Catalog of Stars.
Gliese Catalog #	GL	Number of Gliese-Jahreiss Catalog of Nearby Stars (within 25 pc).
Other Name	OTHERNAME	Other Name for the planet.
Spectral Type	SPTYPE	Spectral type of the star.
Binary Flag	BINARY	0 indicates single star, 1 indicates binary or multiple star system.
V mag	V	V-band magnitude (visual) of the host star [mag].
B-V	BMV	B-V color (blue - visual magnitudes).
2MASS J	J	2MASS J magnitude for stars.
2MASS H	H	2MASS H magnitude for stars.
2MASS K_S	KS	2MASS KS magnitude for stars.
RA	RA	Right Ascension in decimal form (hours). J2000, epoch 2000, from Simbad
DEC	DEC	Declination in decimal form (degrees). J2000, epoch 2000, from Simbad
RA (h:m:s)	RA_STRING	Right Ascension. J2000, epoch 2000, from Simbad
DEC (d:m:s)	DEC_STRING	Declination. J2000, epoch 2000, from Simbad
Mass of Star	MSTAR	Estimated mass of the star, usually based on associating the star's effective temperature and luminosity with stellar models.
Uncertainty in stellar mass	UMSTAR	Uncertainty in MSTAR.
Asymmetric uncertainty in stellar mass	UMSTARD	Asymmetic uncertainty in MSTAR.
T_eff	TEFF	Effective temperature of star.
Uncertainty in T_eff	UTEFF	Uncertainty in TEFF.
Vsin(i)	VSINI	Equatorial velocity of star times the sine of the inclination of the star's axis (i = 0 implies pole-on).
Uncertainty in Vsin(i)	UVSINI	Uncertainty in VSINI.
[Fe/H]	FE	Ratio of Fe to H, relative to that in the Sun, on a log scale with solar being 0.0, and -1.0 being 1/10 solar abundance.
Uncertainty in [FE/H]	UFE	Uncertainty in FE.
log₁₀(g)	LOGG	log₁₀ of the gravity at the surface of the star (cgs units).
Uncertainty in log₁₀(g)	ULOGG	Uncertainty in LOGG.
S_HK	SHK	The Mt Wilson "S Value", a measure of the emission at the cores of the Calcium H&K lines.
log R_HK	RHK	The chromospheric emission in the cores of the Calcium H&K lines, indicating magnetic activity on the star.
Parallax	PAR	Measured Parallax, usually from Hipparcos Catalog.
Uncertainty in parallax	UPAR	Uncertainty in PAR.
Distance to Star	DISTANCE	Distance to planetary system based on parallax.
Uncertainty in Distance to Star	UDISTANCE	Uncertainty in DISTANCE.
Star Mass Reference	MASSREF	Reference in literature for stellar mass.
URL of star mass reference	MASSURL	URL of star mass reference.
Star Type Reference	SPECREF	Reference in literature for stellar properties.
URL of star type reference	SPECURL	URL of star type reference.
Parallax Reference	DISTREF	Reference to parallax of star.
URL of parallax reference	DISTURL	URL of reference to parallax of star.
SIMBAD Link	SIMBADNAME	Link to this planet in the SIMBAD (simbad.harvard.edu) database.
NStED Link	NSTEDID	Link to this planet's star in the NStED (nsted.ipac.caltech.edu) database.

Uncertainties

A number of numerical planet properties have uncertainties, or errors, associated with them. These fall into two classes: properties with symmetric errors and properties with asymmetric errors.

Symmetric Uncertainties

Properties with symmetric errors have only one associated error property. If PID is the ID of the property in question, then its symmetric uncertainty is the property with ID UPID:

PID ± UPID

for example, the orbital period of a given planet (PID is PER) and has an uncertainty of ± UPER.

Asymmetric Uncertainties

Properties with asymmetric errors have two associated error properties: one of the form UPID and another of the form UPIDD. These map onto the upper and lower bounds as follows:

Upper Error Bound = UPIDD Lower Error Bound = 2×UPID − UPIDD

thus UPID is the average of the upper and lower error bounds. As a concrete example, the upper bound of a planet's eccentricity (PID is ECC) is ECC + UECCD while the lower bound is ECC - (2×UECC - UECCD).

Uncertainties and the Exoplanet Data Explorer

Most users of the Exoplanet Data Explorer will not need to worry about these uncertainty properties. The Table automatically associates properties with their errors and correctly computes asymmetric errors from the UPID and UPIDD properties. Similarly, errorbars on scatterplots made in the Plotter using the Simple plotting mode are added automatically.

Users who want to apply filters that cut on uncertainties will need to be familiar with these error properties. Also, scatterplots produced using the Advanced plotting mode must have the appropriate errors specified by hand and there is currently no mechanism to allow the user to specify asymmetric errors. Finally, users who use the CSV ASCII export functionality of the Table should note that errors properties are exported as columns adjacent to their associated properties.

Units

The Exoplanet Data Explorer allows you to perform basic unit conversions for numerical planet properties that have associated units. Such properties fall into two classes -- those with simple units (e.g. length, mass, time, etc...) and those with compound units (e.g. velocity, acceleration, etc...). You can convert properties with simple units into any other unit as long, of course, as the two units represent the same physical characteristic (you cannot convert centimeters to grams, but can convert centimeters to parsecs). Similarly, each component of a compound unit can be independently converted to a different unit of the same physical class - for example, a velocity with units kilometers/second can be converted to one with units parsecs/year. The following table presents the available units in the Exoplanet Data Explorer, unit conversions are only allowed between units in the same physical class. The unit ID column presents the unique unit identifier used to programmatically convert units in the filter field.

Physical Class	Unit	Unit ID
Time	Seconds	s
	Minutes	min
	Hours	hrs
	Days	days
	Years	yrs
Length	Centimeters	cm
	Meters	m
	Kilometers	km
	Astronomical Units (AU)	au
	Light Years	ly
	Parsecs	pc
	Earth Radii	rearth
	Jupiter Radii	rjupiter
	Solar Radii	rsun
Mass	Grams	g
	Kilograms	kg
	Earth Mass	mearth
	Jupiter Mass	mjupiter
	Solar Mass	msun
Volume	Centimeters³	cm^3
Volume	Meters³	m^3
Angle	Degrees	deg
	Radians	rad
	Hours	hr
	Arcseconds	arcsec
	Milliarcseconds	marcsec
Temperature	Kelvin	K
	Celcius	C
	Fahrenheit	F

If you would like to propose a unit to be added to this list, please contact the webmaster

Webpage Credits

The Exoplanet Orbit Database is produced and maintained by Dr. Jason Wright, Dr. Geoff Marcy, and the California Planet Survey consortium. The Exoplanet Data Explorer and website design and maintenance is by Mr. Onsi Fakhouri. Please send Database updates or corrections to jtwright@astro.psu.edu, and send website or Data Explorer bug reports to onsi@berkeley.edu.

If you use this resource, please include the following acknowledgement in your publication:

"This research has made use of the Exoplanet Orbit Database and the Exoplanet Data Explorer at exoplanets.org."

The Exoplanets Query Language

Overview

The Exoplanet Data Explorer has been designed with two goals in mind: to make access to the Exoplanet Orbit Database fun and straightforward, and to enable users to quickly build customizable, powerful, and useful filters and views of the dataset. This latter, more advanced feature, is made possible through a simple query language that is built into the Table and Plotter. Advanced users who would like to leverage the full flexibility of the Exoplanet Data Explorer should peruse this section of the documentation to familiarize themselves with the Exoplanets query language. But you can feel free to skip ahead! There is much that can be done with the Data Explorer that isn't dependent on being familiar with the query syntax!

The query language is used in two distinct contexts: to construct filters and to combine and transform planet properties to create new quantities. The former is used in the Table and Plotter to select a subset of planets to view, the latter is used in the Plotter to produce scatter plots and histograms of combinations of planet properties.

Example Queries

Perhaps the simplest way to introduce the query language is to present some examples:

Example Filters

The filter:

ECC > 0.1

selects all planets with eccentricity exceeding 0.1. Note that the property ID "ECC" is used to denote eccentricity. The table in the database structure section, above, can be used to lookup property IDs for all planet properties in the Exoplanet Orbit Databse. Of course, any property ID could have been used in place of "ECC" in the above filter.
The filter:

10 < RA AND RA < 20 AND -20 < DEC AND DEC < 20

selects all planets with coordinates lying in the range 10<Right Ascension<20 and -20<Declination<20. The exoplanets query language supports three basic boolean operations: AND, OR, and NOT.
The filter:

PER[yrs] >= 1

selects all planets with orbital periods (PER) greater then or equal to 1 (Earth) year. This filter illustrates the use of basic unit conversion in the Exoplanet Query Language. The default unit for orbital period is days, however an alternate set of units can be requested by passing the relevant unit ID in square brackets. Of course, the chosen unit must be valid -- see the section on units for more details and for a table of unit IDs.

Of course this filter is equivalent to

PER >= 365

(well, almost equivalent -- the correct filter would be PER >= 365.25, but I digress). ALternatively one could scale the PER property directly:

PER/365 >= 1

in fact, the Exoplanet Query Language allows for arbitrary mathematical combinations of property IDs and numbers. Addition (+), division (-), multiplication (*), division (/), and exponentiation (^) are all supported.
The filter:

UPER/PER<=1e-5 AND UPER>0

selects all planets with periods accurate to within 1 part in 10^-5. Note that planet properties can be combined mathematically enabling us to take the ratio of the uncertainty in the orbital period (UPER) to the period (PER). We include UPER>0 to ensure that planets without period uncertainties are not included in the cut
The filter:

MSINI[mearth]/sin(I*PI/180)<=10 and TRANSIT==1

selects all planets that have been observed with the transit method (TRANSIT==1) that have a mass lass than or equal to 10 earth masses. Note that this filter does not simply use the measure for minimum mass (Msin(I)), but rather divides the minimum mass (MSINI) by the sin of the measured orbital inclination (I). Along the way MSINI is converted to earth units (MSINI[mearth]) and I is converted from degrees to radians (I*pi/180 -- though I[rad] would have worked too). Note that the Exoplanet Query Language provides PI as a built in constant and the sin() trigonometric function. The full list of available functions is presented below.
The filter:

(ORBREF CONTAINS "Wright" OR ORBREF CONTAINS "Butler") AND A>2

selects all planets with orbits published in papers ("ORBREF") authored by either Wright or Butler with semi-major axis ("A") exceeding 2 au. The CONTAINS operator can be used with string properties such as ORBREF and return true if any part of the string matches the requested string. String searches are not case sensitive. Also, note that parentheses are used to group operations.
The filter:

NCOMP >= 3

selects all planets in systems containing 3 or more planetary components. It is important to remember that the planet is the fundamental object stored in the Exoplanet Orbit Database -- there are no stellar objects; rather, all stellar system information is stored in planet objects such that planets orbiting the same star have the relevant stellar information duplicated amongst them. Thus to select all systems containing 3 or more planets one actually select all planets with NCOMP >= 3.
One can emulate stellar searches by first restricting the Database to pick out only planets with Planet Name (COMP) "b". Each stellar system present in the database has a planet with COMP=="b"; multi-planet systems also include planets named "c", "d", "e", etc... Thus to select all stellar systems containing 3 or more planetary components without duplication one could use the filter:

NCOMP >= 3 AND COMP == "b"

Note that == can be used to match strings exactly. It is distinct from CONTAINS which returns true if any part of a string property contains the requested string.
The (complicated) filter:

sqrt((RA[rad]-10*PI/180)^2+((DEC[rad]-30*PI/180)*cos(RA[rad]))^2)*180/PI<5

selects all planets that lie (roughly) within five degrees of the coordinate RA=10, DEC=30. This is accomplished by computing the angular distane in degrees between each planet's RA and DEC coordinate and the point (10,30) using the spherical coordinate metric.

Example Custom Properties

All of the above examples combine and compare planet properties in order to ultimately produce a true or false cut on each planet in the Exoplanet Orbit Database. This behavior is appropriate in the context of filters. The Exoplanet Query Language is also used, however, when constructing custom scatter and histogram plots in the Plotter. In this context, planet properties can be combined mathematically in order to yield a new numerical quantity for each planet. This quantity can then be plotted against other numerical quantities. Here are some examples:

The quantity:

K[km/yrs]

computes the velocity semiamplitude (K) in units of km/yrs. In this way one can make plots of planet properties using non-default units. Of course, unit conversion can also be accomplished by multiplying/dividing a planet property by the appropriate numerical factor.
The quantity:

2*A[pc]/DISTANCE

computes twice the dimensionless ratio of the semi-major axis (A; in parsecs) to the distance to the stellar system. This gives a small angle approximation (in radians) to the angle subtended by the planet's orbit on the sky.

Supported Operations and Functions

The following operations and functions are supported by the Exoplanet Query Language. If you'd like to see a math function added to this list e-mail the webmaster.

Supported Mathematical Operators

Symbol	Operation	Example
+	Addition	RA + 10
-	Subraction	RA - 10
*	Multiplication	2*A
/	Division	UECC/ECC
%	Modulo	DATE%2
^	Exponentiation	A^2

Supported Comparison Operators

Symbol	Operation	Example
>	Greater-than	DEC > 30
<	Less-than	DEC < 50
>=	Greater-than-or-equal-to	NCOMP >= 3
<=	Less-than-or-equal-to	NCOMP <= 3
==	Equal-to (note: not "=")	NCOMP == 2
!=	Not-equal-0to	NCOMP != 2

Supported String Comparison Operators

Note: all string comparisons are case-insensitive.

Symbol	Operation	Example
CONTAINS	Subset matching: returns true if any part of the string on the left hand side matches the string on the right hand size	NAME CONTAINS "HD"
==	Identical matching: returns true if the left hand side and right hand side match exactly	NAME == "HD 142 b"

Supported Boolean Operators

Symbol	Operation	Example
AND	Logical and	DEC > 30 AND DEC < 50
OR	Logical or	NCOMP == 2 OR NCOMP == 3
NOT	Logical not	NOT NCOMP > 3

Supported Functions

Symbol	Operation	Example
ABS	Absolute Value	ABS(RA-10)
SIN	Trigonometric Sine, accepts radians	SIN(I[rad])
COS	Trigonometric Cosine, accepts radians	COS(I[rad])
TAN	Trigonometric Tangent, accepts radians	TAN(PI/4)
LOG	Natural Logarithm (i.e. ln)	LOG(MSINI)
EXP	Exponential function	EXP(ECC)
SQRT	Square root function	SQRT(A^3)

Planet Minipages

The Exoplanets Data Explorer provides detailed minipages for each planet in the Exoplanets Orbit Database. These minipages collect and present all available planet properties for each planet in the Database in a convenient at-a-glance format. In addition, when available, the minipages include high-resolution PDFs of each planet's velocity plot based on the NStED velocities and light curves.

These minipages can be accessed from the Exoplanets Data Explorer Table and Plotter. In addition direct access to the planet minipages via a URL is possible.

Planet Minipages URL Format

Accessing a single planet

To access a single planet's minipage, point your browser to

http://exoplanets.org/cgi-bin/planet.py/NAME

where NAME is the name of the planet as it appears in the Table with spaces replaced with underscores. For example, to access the planet named "WASP-11 b" go to

http://exoplanets.org/cgi-bin/planet.py/WASP-11_b

If the requested planet is part of a multi-planet system all planets associated with that system are displayed on the same minipage. The requested planet is highlighted in blue to distinguish it from the other planets in the system.

Accessing a planetary system (i.e. a star)

To display all planets associated with a particular star, point your browser to

http://exoplanets.org/cgi-bin/planet.py/STAR

where STAR is the name of the star in question and can be looked up in the Star Name column in the Table. Spaces in the star name should be replaced with underscores. For example

http://exoplanets.org/cgi-bin/planet.py/upsilon_And

displays all planets known to orbit the "upsilon And" star.

Accessing a set of planets

Any number of planets can be displayed on the same minipage. To display more than one planet on the same minipage point your browser to

http://exoplanets.org/cgi-bin/planet.py/NAME1,NAME2,NAME3,...

where NAME1, NAME2, NAME3, etc... are the names of the requested planets derived from the Name column in the Table. Spaces should be replaced with underscores. For example:

http://exoplanets.org/cgi-bin/planet.py/HD_154345_b,HD_183263_c,55_Cnc_d

displays a minipage containing planets "HD 154345 b", "HD 183263 c", and "55 Cnc d".

Unlike requests for single planets, requests for multiple planets that include planets that are in multi-planetary systems do not automatically return all planets associated with that system. Moreover, you cannot request a set of stars, or intermingle stars with planets in the request url: only planet names are valid, star names are ignored.

The Table Module

The Exoplanets Data Explorer Table is a highly customizable dynamic tabular view of the Exoplanets Orbit Database. As discussed above each row in the Table corresponds to a planet and each column to a planet property. Here's an annotated screenshot of the Table, scroll over the highlighted regions to learn more and click to jump to the relevant section in the documentation:

Columns

Each column in the Table corresponds to a planet property. These columns are dynamic and can be completely redefined to suit your needs -- read on to find out how!

Adding, Rearranging, and Deleting Columns

Adding Columns

Columns can be added to the Table by clicking the Plus icon:

This brings up the planet property palette:

Only properties that are not already columns in the Table are included in the palette. Also, uncertainty properties are not included in the palette as they are automatically loaded whenever a property with errors is added to the table.

The planet property palette can be searched -- simply begin typing in the search box and any properties that do not match your search will fade and become unclickable. The search functionality does not merely match your search term to the title or ID of the property in question, but also to the description of the property making it easier to find what you are looking for.

To learn more about any of the properties available in the palette, simply hover your mouse over it. The tooltip will include a brief description of the property along with the property ID listed in parentheses.

Rarranging Columns

To rearrange the order of the columns simply click and drag a column heading. The table will update in realtime as you drag the column to illustrate the new column order.

Deleting Columns

When a column heading is dragged the plus button turns into a large red minus button. To delete a column simply drag it to the minus button and drop it.

Sorting Columns

Any column present in the table can be used to sort the table, simply click on the column heading to toggle between unsorted, ascending, and descending order.

Uncertainties and Units

Most numerical planet properties in the Database have associated units and uncertainties. For a complete discussion of uncertainties click here. For a discussion on units, including a table of available units, click here.

Toggling Column Uncertainties

To toggle errors on a property that has associated errors click the ± icon in the column header:

If a column header does not have a ± icon then the property in question does not have an associated uncertainty.

In the table, symmetric uncertainties are presented using ± notation:

Value±Error

Asymmetric uncertainties are presented in the following form:

Value+Upper/-Lower

Converting Units

In the table, units can be converted by simply clicking on the unit in the column header and a selecting a unit from the resulting menu. Individual components of compound units can also be converted in this way - simply click on each individual component to pick a different unit:

Filters

The filter entry in the Exoplanets Data Explorer Table allows one to quickly perform real-time cuts on the Exoplanets Orbit Database. Queries are written in the simple Exoplanets Query Language described above.

Filters that are successfully parsed cause the Table to update automatically -- as you type! The number of displayed planets, to the right of the filter entry, is also updated to denote the number of planets selected by the filter:

If a filter fails to parse, the filter field will be highlighted in red and an error will appear:

You must correct the error before the filter can be applied to the Table. Please refer to the Exoplanets Query Language reference for help with formulating filters.

A few important issues must be pointed out regarding the use of filters in the Table:

The filter can contain planet properties that have not already been loaded into the table. These will automatically be downloaded from the exoplanets.org server as the filter is parsed.
The units associated with a planet property, when used in a filter, are always the default units associated with that property. Not the units that appear in that property's column in the Table. For example, setting the units for the Orbital Period property to "years" in the table does not automatically cause filters that depend on the Period to evaluate the Period in years. Do not do this to select planets with orbital periods exceeding one earth year:
~~PER > 1~~
Wrong!
The Period will be evaluated in days. Instead the filter should explicitly specify the units:
PER[yrs] > 1
Correct!

Preset and Custom Views

Preset Views

The Exoplanets Data Explorer Table provides access to all the planet properties in the Exoplanets Orbit Database. Different combinations of these properties and are appropriate and relevant for different contexts and the table provides a set of preset table configurations, called views that highlight a number of useful and important table configurations.

These preset views can be accessed from the view drop-down menu in the top-left corner of the Table. Simply select a preset to reconfigure the table:

When a new view is chosen the columns in the Table are reconfigured to match the set of columns in the chosen view. In addition, the current filter is replaced with the filter store in the chosen view.

Custom Views

In addition to providing access to pre-determined preset views the view menu allows users to save and load their own custom views:

To store the current table configuration as a custom view click "Save Current View..." in the view drop down menu. A dialog box will pop up asking you to give your custom view a name. This custom view is stored locally in your browser, on your computer, using cookies. These must be enabled for custom views to function. Note that if you switch browsers or computers your custom views will not transfer -- they are simply stored as local cookies in the browser used to save the custom view.

Once saved, a custom view can be accessed from the view menu just like a preset view. Custom views can also be deleted: simply click the red - icon next to the custom view to have it removed from the view menu. This cannot be undone.

Exporting the Table

While the Exoplanet Data Explorer Table provides a convenient and powerful interface to explore and slice and dice the Exoplanets Orbit Database in real time it is often necessary to export the dataset into a convenient format for ingestion by a data analysis package.

The Table allows you to export the current view (i.e. the current configuration of columns with the current filter applied) to a Comma-Separated-Values (csv) plain-text file. To do this, simply click the Export button in the top-right corner:

Depending on the browser your are using, either a new window will open containing the relevant data output or a file will be downloaded to your computer. If a new window opens, you can either copy and paste the text or save the page to your computer as a .csv file.

The Export File Format

The .csv file produced can be immediately loaded into a spreadsheet program or any data analysis package that support .csv.

The first row contains the property IDs for each exported column. The second row contains the units associated with each property ID (or None if there are no associated units). Subsequent rows contain the data itself.

Please note that the exported .csv file matches the Table view exactly: the units chosen for a particular column are the units that are used in the export file. Furthermore, error information is only exported for columns that are displaying errors -- thus error output can be toggled on and off in the table.

When errors are included additional columns are added to the export file. The errors of a given column always appear immediately after that column. If the column has symmetric errors, only one error column appears. If a column has asymmetric errors then two error columns appear. To correctly identify and use errors, please make sure to read the uncertainties documentation.

Columns in the Table that contain published references and urls result in two columns in the exported file. The first contains the name of the reference as it appears in the table, the second includes the URL to the publication. Where multiple references are available they are separated by a semicolon.

Accessing Planet Minipages

Planet minipages offer convenient at-a-glance view of planet properties for each planet in the Exoplanet Orbit Database. The Exoplanet Data Explorer Table presents several mechanism to rapidly access these minipages.

Accessing individual planet/star minipages

The minipage for any planet or planetary system can be accessed by clicking on the name of a planet or star in the Table. To do this the "Name" or "Star Name" columns must be visible:

Accessing minipages for all displayed planets

To view a minipage containing all the planets currently displayed in the table, click the minipage display button in the top-left corner of the Table:

Note that minipages are optimized for viewing a handful of planets. While it is technically possible to view a single minipage containing all planets in the Exoplanets Orbit Database, doing so will likely be time and processor consuming and may cause your browser to hang. It is best to drill down into the dataset using a Filter before bringing up the minipage view.

The Plotter Module

The Exoplanets Data Explorer Plotter is a powerful real-time plotting tool designed to enable the visualization of the Exoplanets Orbit Database. The Plotter supports highly configurable scatter plots and histogram plots. Here's an annotated screenshot of the Plotter, scroll over the highlighted regions to learn more and click to jump to the relevant section in the documentation:

Adjusting the Axes

As you add and configure plots to the Exoplanets Data Explorer Plotter the results are displayed in real-time on the plot axes. These axes can be configured and manipulated intuitively.

Most axes settings can be modified by bringing up the axes configuration panel. To do this, select the axes by clicking the "Axes" button near the plus button:

This brings up the axes configuration panel:

Panning and Zooming

There are many ways to pan and zoom the plot axes to focus in on any region of interest.

Panning

To pan the axes simply click and drag anywhere on the plot. You can constrain panning along the x-axis by holding down shift as you drag and panning along the y-axis by holding down alt/option.

At any stage you can recenter the axes to exactly fit all the plotted data by clicking the home button in the top left corner of the axes:

Zooming

There are multiple ways to zoom in and out on the axes:

You can zoom in and out by clicking the + and - icons in the top left corner of the plot. These cause the plot to zoom in (+) and out (-) by a factor of 2. The zoom takes place about the center of the plot.

You can double-click on any point in the plot. This causes the plot to zoom in by a factor of 2 around a point centered on your click. To zoom out, hold down shift as you double-click.
If your mouse has the ability to scroll (i.e. it has a scroll wheel or a touch-based scrolling interface) then you can zoom in and out by simply placing the cursor in the plot and scrolling up and down. The zoom is centered on the location of your cursor. Also, you can constrain zooming along the x-axis or y-axis by holding down shift or alt/option respectively.

Precise Control

The above approaches allow you to quickly and intuitively manipulate the axes. For more precise, numerical, control you can input the axes bounds manually. To do this, bring up the axes configuration panel and adjust the x and y axis ranges. Simply modify the entries in the relevant Min and Max entries.

Modifying Axes Labels

When producing scatter and histogram plots using "Simple" mode the axes labels are automatically adjusted for you to reflect the quantities being plotted. You can modify these labels or specify your own (this is necessary in "Advanced" mode) easily. You can either:

Click on the axis label on the plot. This automatically brings up the axes configuration panel allowing you to adjust the label entry for either the x or y axis.

Bring up the axes configuration panel by clicking the "Axes" button near the plus button (see above).

Toggling Log Scaling

The x and y axes can be independently switched between linear and log scaling. To do this, bring up the axes configuration panel and check or uncheck the "log" checkbox associated with the appropriate axis.

Managing Plots

The Exoplanets Data Explorer Plotter allows multiple plots to be overlaid on the same set of axes. In this section we describe how to add, delete, duplicate, and modify plots.

Adding Plots

On startup, the Exoplanets Data Explorer Plotter presents a blank set of axes. Plots can be added to the axes by clicking on the plus icon near the top left of the Plotter and selecting a plot type. The Plotter provides two plot types - a scatter plot and a histogram plot.

Modifying Plots

Both scatter plot and histogram plots provide a rich array of customizable settings. To access these settings and make changes to a plot you must first bring up the plot's configuration panel by selecting the plot.

When a new plot is created, it's automatically selected and its configuration panel is automatically displayed:

When there are multiple plots attached to the axes, you can select a plot and bring up its configuration panel by simply clicking on the plot's entry:

The various parameters that can be modified in the plot's configuration panel are discussed in more detail for scatter plots and histogram plots below.

Deleting and Duplicating Plots

A plot can be removed from the axes by clicking the delete button (red minus) on that plot's entry. This immediately removes the plot and cannot be undone!

It is often useful to duplicate a plot and tweak it's parameters. For example, two subpopulations of a histogram can be independently highlighted quickly by making two duplicate copies of the histogram, applying a filter to each filter to select the subpopulation in question, and then modifying the line color or line width to differentiate the new histogram from the old.

To duplicate a histogram, simply click the duplicate button (blue double plus icon). A new copy is made immediately and selected.

Scatter Plots

Scatter plots are useful tools to explore the correlations and dependencies between parameters. The Exoplanets Data Explorer Plotter can produce scatter plots with arbitrary planet properties for the x and y coordinates. Moreover, the color and size of each scatter point can be a function of an arbitrary planet property.

For ease of use, scatter plots provide two usage modes. Simple mode is intended to allow users to rapidly construct plots without using the Exoplanets Query Language. Advanced mode opens up all the features of the Plotter scatter plots and allows the user to construct arbitrary filters and to plot arbitrary combinations of planet properties.

To switch between modes, simply click the appropriate tab in the configuration panel:

Simple Mode

Simple mode allows you to quickly and easily make a scatter plot comparing two planet properties.

Setting x and y Coordinates

To assign a planet property to the x and y coordinates simply click on the appropriate drop down menu and select a planet property from the panel that appears:

As soon as both x and y properties are selected, a plot is made automatically. In simple mode, any relevant errors are automatically loaded and error bars are displayed on the plot. Also the x and y axes labels are updated to reflect the planet properties being plotted.

Note that in simple mode, the x and y properties are restricted to the set of planet properties defined in the Exoplanet Orbit Database. To plot mathematical combinations of these properties, you must use advanced mode. Moreover, the units used in simple mode are the default units associated with the planet property. To change units you must use advanced mode.

Applying a Filter

By default, all planets with well defined x and y properties are plotted. To constrain the plot to a particular set of panels, you may choose from one of the predefined filters in the filter drop down menu. The chosen filter is applied immediately and the plot is modified.

In order to use a custom filter, the scatter plot must be switched to advanced mode. However, custom table views that you have defined in the Table will also appear in the filter drop down menu. If a custom table view is chosen then the filter associated with that view is applied to the scatter plot.

Adjusting Marker Properties

The marker represented to use each planet on scatter plot can be customized. This is particularly useful when multiple-scatter plots are present on the same plot. Whereas in advanced mode it is possible to have the color and size of the marker depend on a quantitative planet property, this is not possible in simple mode.

You can, however, change the color of the marker, the shape of the marker, and the size of the marker. Simply point and click:

Adjusting Error Properties

Some planet properties have errors associated with them. In simple mode, these are automatically imported and plotted. You can control whether these errors should be displayed, and the thickness of the error bars easily:

Advanced Mode

Advanced mode opens up a number of scatter plot features and capabilities. The following screenshot will be used as a reference to describe these features:

Specifying coordinates and filters

In advanced mode, x, and y coordinates can be set to any combination of planet properties using the Exoplanets Query Language outlined above. This language is a simple, but powerful, tool to construct arbitrary combinations of planet properties.

In the above screenshot, the x and y fields are set to "A" and "MSINI[mearth]" respectively. This sets the x-coordinate to the Semimajor-Axis and the y-coordinate to Msin(I) expressed in Earth mass units. Of course, any valid Exoplanets Query Language expression is allowed.

For convenience, a panel of available planet properties can be accessed by clicking the down-ward pointing arrow beside each entry in the configuration panel. Selecting a planet property from this panel will fill the associated field with the corresponding property ID. Note that anything already in the field will be overwritten.

In addition to specifying x and y coordinates, it is possible to specify a custom filter. The filter should evaluate to a boolean true or false (as with the filter field in the Exoplanets Data Explorer Table) and only planets that satisfy the filter are plotted. For convenience, the filter drop down menu provides access to a set of predefined filters, as well as any filters stored in custom table views.

Finally, note that the x and y axes labels are not updated as the x and y fields are modified. Since x and y can be arbitrarily complex, it is not possible to automatically select an appropriate axis label. Of course, the axes labels can be modified manually.

Specifying errors

In simple mode, errors are automatically imported and displayed when x and y quantities are chosen. Since arbitrary composite properties can be assigned to x and y in advanced mode, error assignment is not automated. Rather, you will need to assign errors manually by specifying the X Error and Y Error fields. The naming conventions used to define errors on planet properties are discussed above.

Note that these error fields do not need to be specified. Only specified errors will be plotted. Also, note that there is no support for asymmetric errors yet.

Color Scales and Marker Size Scales

While constant colors and marker sizes can be assigned and customized in advanced mode (using the same controls used in simple mode outlined here), it is also possible to have the marker colors and sizes scale as an arbitrary function of planet properties.

Color scales can be set by modifying the "Colorscale" entry. Any well-formed Exoplanets Query Language expression is allowed. The resulting quantity is used to color the scatter plot markers, with blue corresponding to low values and red to high values. For some quantities log scaling is more appropriate than the default linear scaling -- this can be specified by checking the "Log Color Scaling" checkbox.

In the event that a colorscale quantity is not defined for a particular planet, the relevant scatter point will be colored in black -- a color that is not on the color scale.

A quantitative color bar that appears on the right side of the plot can be turned on and off by toggling the "Show Colorscale" button. Note that multiple plots with color scales will have overlapping color bars -- make sure you only turn one color bar on at a time!

Similarly, marker size scales can be set by modifying the "Marker Size" entry. Log scaling can be specified by toggling the "Log Marker Scaling" checkbox and a marker size key can be turned on and off by toggling the "Show Marker Sizes" checkbox. In the event that a marker size quantity is not defined, the corresponding marker is shrunk to a miniscule size (1 pixel across).

Interactive Features

Each marker on a scatter plot corresponds to a planet in the Exoplanets Orbit Database. You can find out which planet is associated with a given marker by simply hovering your mouse over the marker. A tooltip will appear with the name of the planet:

Clicking on a highlighted marker will load up the corresponding planet's minipage!

Histogram Plots

Histogram plots are useful tools to explore the distributions of planet properties. THe Exoplanets Data Explorer Plotter can produce histograms of arbitrary combinations of planet properties; cuts can be applied to the data to explore subpopulations of the Exoplanets Orbit Database. Also, the bins and normalization used to compute the histogram can be modified to better match the data and application at hand.

For ease of use, histogram plots provide two usage modes. Simple mode is intended to allow users to rapidly construct plots without using the Exoplanets Query Language. Advanced mode opens up all the features of the Plotter histogram plots and allows the user to construct arbitrary filters and to supply arbitrary combinations of planet properties as data to the histogram. Also, advanced mode allows the user to customize the histogram's binning and normalization.

To switch between modes, simply click the appropriate tab in the configuration panel:

Simple Mode

Simple mode allows you to quickly and easily make a histogram of a particular planet property. An appropriate binning scheme is computed automatically, and the histogram is normalized such that the area under the histogram is unity (i.e. the histogram is a probability distribution).

Assigning Histogram Data

To compute the distribution of a planet property and produce a histogram plot, simply select the relevant planet property from the data drop down menu in the histogram plot's configuration panel:

Once a property is a selected a histogram is automatically generated and displayed on the axes. The histogram overlays Poisson errors -- these are not computed in a particularly robust or fancy manner: they error for a given bin is simply proportional to the square root of the number of planets in that bin.

The histograms generated in simple mode are normalized to be probability distributions. i.e. the area under the histogram is one and the height of each bin is computed by first counting the number of planets in that bin, then dividing by the bin width, and finally dividing by the total number of planets in the histogram (note that this last step takes into account the fact that a filter may have selected only a subset of planets for plotting). Alternative normalizations can be obtained in advanced mode.

Finally, in simple mode the histogram plot automatically updates the x and y axes labels to reflect the quantity being plotted. This is not the case in advanced mode. Moreover, in simple mode the histogram will automatically decide whether to produce a histogram with logarithmically spaced bins or linearly spaced bins. The x and y axes will be appropriately scaled.

Assigning a Filter

Filters only allow a subset of the planets in the Exoplanet Orbit Database to contribute to the Histogram. The mechanism for assigning a filter is identical to the mechanism employed for simple mode scatter plots. Please refer to that section for documentation.

Adjusting Visual Style

A number of visual features of the histogram plot can be modified. These customizations are accessible from the plot configuration panel:

Color: modifies the color of the histogram.
Linewidth: modifies the width of the histogram lines.
Errors: toggles the display of the error overlays. When on, appropriately normalized poisson errors are overlaid as transparent bars.
Draw bins: toggles how the histogram is drawn. When on (default) the width of each bin is drawn. When off, the bin widths are not drawn and, instead, the bin heights are positioned at the bin centers and connected with straight lines.

Advanced Mode

Advanced mode opens up a number of histogram plot features and capabilities. The following screenshot will be used as a reference to describe these features:

Specifying Histogram Data and Filters

Any valid Exoplanets Query Language expression can be used to specify the histogram Data and Filter. This provides a flexible and powerful way to compute the distribution of arbitrary combinations of planet properties with arbitrary cuts applied to the population of planets in the Database.

For convenience, the list of available planet properties can be accessed by clicking on the down-ward pointing arrow beside each entry in the configuration panel. Selecting a planet property from this panel will fill the associated field with the corresponding property ID. Note that anything in the field will be overwritten.

When specifying a custom filter, make sure you use an Exoplanets Query Language expression that results in a boolean true or false value. Only planets that return true on the filter will be included in the histogram.

Note that the Exoplanets Orbit Database is structured such that the planet is the fundamental entry in the database -- not the star. To produce a histogram of a stellar quantity (such as MSTAR -- the mass of the star) you must apply a filter that selects exactly one planet from each star. The simplest way to do this is to ensure that

COMP == "b"

is tested to be true in your filter. Every planetary system (i.e. every star) has exactly one planet with COMP set to "b" and this filter will ensure that stars are not double counted in the histogram.

Specifying Bins

When the filter and data fields are updated in advanced mode a set of simple histogram statistics are computed including the min, max, mean, and median of the distribution. These statistics, particularly the min and max statistic, can be used to select an appropriate binning scheme.

You can specify the bins used to construct the histogram in the Bin Ranges section of the plot configuration panel. Here you can specify the lower bound of the bin range (the Min field) and the upper bound of the bin range (the Max field). In addition, you can specify the number of bins (the # Bins field). A linear set of bins will be automatically computed and used to bin the data.

You can toggle between linear and logarithmic bins by checking and unchecking the Logarithmic Bins checkbox. The plot will be updated immediately to illustrate the changes.

Normalizing the Histogram

Understanding the normalization of your histogram plot is important, particularly when seeking quantitative information! The Plotter allows you to control how the histogram is normalized in the Normalization section of the configuration panel.

The normalization drop down menu allows you to choose between "Raw Counts" and "Probability":

When Probability is chosen, y-value assigned to each bin is the number of planets in the bin divided by the number of planets in the entire histogram. When Raw Counts is chosen, the y-value is simply the number of planets in the bin.

Moreover, the y-value may also be divided by the bin width. This is done if the "Per Bin" checkbox is checked. Otherwise, the y-value is untouched.

Different combinations of these two settings yield different results and interpretations. Here are two of the most useful combinations:

Probability Distribution: setting Normalization to Probability and turning Per Bin on yields a histogram with unit area. This is the probability distribution of the quantity in question.
Raw Counts: setting Normalization to Raw Counts and turning Per Bin off yields a histogram in which the y-value of each bin corresponds to an integer, and is exactly the number of planets present in that bin.

Interactive Features

Each bin on a histogram plot contains a number of planets in the Exoplanets Orbit Database. You can find out which planets are associated with a given bin, and get the total number of planets in that bin by hovering your mouse over the bin. A tooltip will appear as follows:

Note that at most 10 planet names are displayed in the tooltip. To get a detailed view of all the planets in the bin, simply click. A planet minipage displaying all the planets in the bin will load in a new window!

Smaple and Custom Views

As with the preset and custom view in the Table, the Exoplanets Data Explorer plotter provides a number of sample plots and the ability to save your own custom plots for later retrieval.

To access the plot views menu simply click on the "Sample and Custom Plots" menu in the top right corner:

From here you can select any one of the sample plots -- these samples present interesting distributions and correlations in the Database and are intended as example starting points for building your own custom plots.

You can also click the "Save Current View..." button to store the current axes configuration for later retrieval. Note that all the plots attached to the axes are stored.

This functionality uses cookies to store the plot data in the browser on your computer. As such, your stored custom views are only available in the browser you used to save them.

Export Plots

The plots generated by the Exoplanets Data Explorer Plotter can be exported to the .PNG image format to enable easy inclusion in presentations, webpages, e-mails, and even publications.

Though, of course, it is possible to simply take a screenshot of the plotter, we recommend against this, particularly in the context of preparing plots for presentations where legibility, marker widths, and plot size are important considerations. Instead, please use the plot export feature -- it comes with a set of predefined settings that produce optimized plot exports for presentations and publications!

To export your plot, simply click the export button in the top right corner of the screen:

This will bring up a dialog box:

This dialog box includes a preview of your plot export on the right, along with an indicator denoting the width of the final output image in pixels. By default, plot exports are scaled to be square images, however you can force the exporter to maintain the aspect ratio of your plot as it appears in the browser by selecting "Maintain Aspect Ratio."

You can choose from three presets when exporting your plot by clicking on the Plot Quality drop down menu:

Presentation: This setting produces plots optimized for presentation software. The output size is 600x600 pixels and font sizes and line widths are appropriately scaled so as to be readily visible by your audience.
High Resolution: This setting produces high resolution plots suitable for publication. The output size is 1200x1200 pixels and font sizes and line widths are appropriately scaled to be legible when printed at 300 dpi resolution (i.e. 4x4 inches)
As-is: This setting produces an export that faithfully matches the plot you see on your screen. Fonts and line widths are not rescaled, often making it hard to use this plot in presentations and publications. Only use this export mode if you know what you are doing!

Once you've set up your export, click the "Export" button. A new window will appear with the resulting plot image. You can use your browser's functionality to save this image to your computer, or copy and paste the image directly into your presentation software.