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Extrasolar Planets

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Book cover Life on Earth and other Planetary Bodies

Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 24))

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Abstract

Since the discovery of the first extrasolar planets at the end of the twentieth century, there has been a tremendous increase in both observational discoveries and theoretical work in this field of research. Although most of the extrasolar planets found up to now are gas giants, the number of planets with masses below 10 MEarth is growing rapidly. It thus seems that there is a large population of low-mass planets that is waiting to be discovered. Two transiting low-mass planets have been found already. One of them has a density, which is quite similar to Earth. Surprisingly, most of the planetary systems do not resemble our solar system. Some systems have gas-giant planets with orbital periods of days. Others have planets in highly eccentric orbits. Only a tiny fraction of the stars have planets with an orbital period of a few years and an eccentricity below 0.1.

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  1. Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, 07778, Tautenburg, Germany

    Eike W. Guenther

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  1. Institut für Geophysik, Astrophysik und Meteorologie, Universität Graz, Universitätsplatz 5, Graz, 8010, Austria

    Arnold Hanslmeier

  2. , Physical Geology and Global Cycles, Institute of Applied Geosciences (IAG), Schnittspahnstraße 9, Darmstadt, 64287, Germany

    Stephan Kempe

  3. University of Jerusalem, Mevo Hadas 20, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

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Guenther, E.W. (2012). Extrasolar Planets. In: Hanslmeier, A., Kempe, S., Seckbach, J. (eds) Life on Earth and other Planetary Bodies. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4966-5_8

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