Extra-Solar Planets

For centuries, human beings have wondered whether other planets existed orbiting other stars. In fact, in 1584 Giordano Bruno, a Catholic monk, suggested that the Universe was infinite, and that there were "countless suns and countless earths all rotating around their suns". The church accused him of heresy, and burned him at the stake in 1600. Until recently, the technology to determine this has been beyond our grasp. Recent advances in science and technology have answered this question with the discovery of numerous planets orbiting stars other than our Sun. However, technology still has some limitations, and the planets discovered to date have all been much more massive than our Earth; in fact, most are close to the size of Jupiter and larger, and are probably gas giants rather than rocky planets. Many of the systems found could harbor Earth like planets, but we need much more sensitive instruments to detect them.

So; how are planets found? This link to NASA contains a brief outline of the methods used. It is virtually impossible to image planets due to the enormous distances to even close-by stars, and the fact that they would be lost in the glare from their parent star. However, some planets have been imaged once they were found using other, indirect methods.

In this section, we look at some of the stars and their planets. Some are included in the Solar System Visualization; just follow the instructions.

Exoplanet Status:

April 14th 2010, 452 exoplanets have been found spread across more than 363 stars.
July 6th 2010, 464 exoplanets have been found. None is close to Earth in size and orbiting within the star's habitable zone.
August 29th 2010, 490 exoplanets. Now have some Earth sized planets, but still nore are orbiting within their star's habitable zone.

Extra Solar Planets

Introduction

Exoplanet Status: