ExoplanetHub 🪐

A modern web application for exploring confirmed exoplanets using real-time data from NASA's Exoplanet Archive. Built with Next.js and powered by a serverless AWS backend.

Features

• Real-time Data: Automatically syncs with NASA's Exoplanet Archive every 6 hours
• Interactive Exploration: Browse and filter thousands of confirmed exoplanets
• Detailed Information: View comprehensive data including orbital parameters, stellar characteristics, and discovery details
• Serverless Architecture: Scalable AWS infrastructure with DynamoDB and Lambda

Tech Stack

Frontend

• Next.js 15 - React framework with App Router
• TypeScript - Type-safe development
• AWS SDK - Direct DynamoDB integration
• Vercel - Deployment platform

Backend

• AWS Lambda - Serverless compute (Python 3.13)
• DynamoDB - NoSQL database with GSIs for efficient querying
• EventBridge - Scheduled data synchronization
• SAM - Infrastructure as Code
• GitHub Actions - CI/CD pipeline

Project Structure

.
├── exoplanethub.com/          # Next.js frontend
│   ├── app/                   # App router pages
│   ├── components/            # React components
│   └── lib/                   # Types and utilities
└── aws-backend/               # Serverless backend
    ├── lambda/
    │   ├── sync/              # NASA data sync function
    │   └── cleanup/           # Database cleanup function
    └── template.yaml          # SAM template

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Python 3.13+
• AWS Account
• AWS SAM CLI

Frontend Setup

cd exoplanethub.com
pnpm install

# Create .env.local with:
# AWS_REGION=us-east-1
# AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your_key
# AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your_secret
# EXOPLANETS_DATABASE_TABLE=exoplanets-dev
# EXOPLANETS_RECORDS_TABLE=exoplanet-records-dev

pnpm dev

Backend Deployment

cd aws-backend

# Create samconfig.toml with your AWS settings

sam build
sam deploy --guided

Deployment

Automated Deployments

• Frontend: Automatically deploys to Vercel on push to main
• Backend: Deploy by pushing tags:
  • dev-aws-backend-* → dev environment
  • main-aws-backend-* → production environment

GitHub Secrets Required

• AWS_ROLE_ARN — the IAM role the backend deploy workflow assumes via OIDC. No long-lived access keys are stored; the workflow requests a short-lived token per run.

Data Source

Exoplanet data is sourced from NASA Exoplanet Archive using their TAP API.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Documentation

• Architecture Overview
• Roadmap
• Code of Conduct
• Security Policy

License

MIT - see LICENSE for details.