Current planets
6.2K
Default NASA parameter set
A premium archive for the NASA Planetary Systems dataset
The most elegant way to explore worlds beyond our own star.
ExoVault turns raw NASA astronomical snapshots into a professional discovery tool. Designed for curation, side-by-side analysis, and atmospheric exploration.
Host systems
4.6K
Across confirmed archive entries
Discovery methods
11
From radial velocity to direct imaging
Archive span
1992-2026
A rolling timeline of discoveries
Signal overview
Editorial shell outside, high-signal explorer inside.
Featured logic
Build-time heuristics surface the nearest, hottest, busiest, and freshest archive entries.
Explorer mode
Search only when needed, then sort, inspect, and compare without losing context.
Featured worlds
Six curated entry points into the archive.
Instead of dropping visitors into a wall of rows, the homepage starts with a guided set of extreme, nearby, and surprisingly balanced worlds. Each card can jump directly into the explorer.
Each featured world is picked from the live build snapshot to show a different edge of the archive: scale, heat, distance, and system architecture.
Start broad, move into a slice, then zoom into a single world.
The interface keeps the first decision lightweight. Visitors can enter through a preset, run a manual query, or open a featured planet directly into the detail panel. Compare mode stays optional until curiosity turns into analysis.
Step 1
Preset discovery
Curated filters narrow the archive instantly without forcing technical knowledge first.
Hot worlds Nearby systems Fresh finds
Step 2
Focused search
Year, method, facility, host name, distance, and heat can be combined into a clean search state.
Step 3
Fast compare
Pin up to three planets and keep scale, distance, and heat in view without leaving the archive.
A short, guided path keeps the first pass calm.
Visitors can stay in overview mode, then progressively reveal detail only when they need it.
Curated slices
Small entry points reduce the intimidation of a large scientific archive.
Side-by-side reading
Comparison stays optional, helping the interface feel exploratory instead of academic.
Main explorer
A static-site data app that still feels alive.
The dataset is pre-processed at build time, then loaded as a static JSON asset, so the explorer can stay responsive on GitHub Pages without forcing a raw NASA CSV through the browser.
Explorer booting
Loading the generated archive snapshot and preparing the filters, compare tray, and detail panel.
Three simple cues keep the archive approachable.
- Distance is shown in light-years for easier intuition than raw parsecs.
- Heat uses equilibrium temperature, a useful directional signal even though it is not a full climate model.
- Size class translates raw radius estimates into human-readable buckets like terrestrial or gas giant.
Designed for browsing, not just querying.
Many archive demos stop at a form and a table. This one adds a curated front door, cinematic but restrained presentation, a persistent detail context, a real compare mode, and a workflow that keeps the dataset fresh without needing a backend.
Curated entry
Featured worlds give visitors a fast, low-friction on-ramp.
Detail context
The planet detail panel stays pinned alongside the results.
Static delivery
GitHub Pages keeps the experience fast and easy to host.
Data refresh
A scheduled workflow rebuilds the snapshot when NASA updates it.
Built from NASA's Planetary Systems table, then reduced to the current default parameter set.
The build pipeline reads the raw CSV snapshot, keeps the archive's default rows for each current planet, and generates a compact JSON payload for this interface. A separate GitHub Actions workflow can refresh the NASA snapshot and trigger a new deployment when the data changes.
- Raw snapshot
- data/raw/nasa-exoplanets-ps.csv
- Rows in archive snapshot
- 39.5K
- Rows in live app payload
- 6.2K
- Generated
- Apr 10, 2026, 1:01 PM
Static deployment, modern DX, zero backend dependency.
Astro shell
Astro powers the shell and route output for GitHub Pages.
React islands
The explorer, compare mode, theme toggle, and featured carousel stay interactive without bloating the shell.
CSS motion
Hover states and subtle transitions create atmosphere without Framer Motion.
GitHub Actions
CI, Pages deploys, and archive refresh automation run on the current branch.