6.8: The Discovery of Extrasolar Planets
Dr. Geoff Marcy , UCSF-UCB (University of California San Francisco – University of California Berkeley) led the research efforts in the late 1980s to develop extrasolar planet search techniques. The main question was: What do you look for when trying to see a planet around another star?
Several techniques have been developed:
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Technology has allowed both amateur and professional astronomers the ability to make such observations from here on Earth. And eventually technology should allow astronomers to directly view exoplanets.
The Discovery of Extrasolar Planets
As of fall 2014, astronomers have found 1,822 planets in 1,137 planetary systems and 467 multiple planet systems. Seven planets have been discovered around the star HD10180, the largest known system outside our solar system. And currently there are thousands of candidate exoplanets.
So what are these exoplanets like?
Most are much bigger than Earth, more like Jupiter and even much larger than Jupiter. Many are extremely hot; they orbit quite close to their star or stars. And many of these will “lose” to their parent stars and crash into their star as the star’s gravity pulls them in.