Stars, planets and origins
The detection of extrasolar planets over the past decade ranks among the most exciting and remarkable advances in the history of astronomy. More than five thousand such bodies have been found so far, spanning masses and radii from super-Jovians to sub-Earths, and arrayed in a diversity of architectures ranging from gas giants in orbits smaller than Mercury’s to multiple planets in orbits analogous to those in the Solar System. As the planetary menagerie swells, the focus has shifted to the fundamental underlying questions: How do these planets form, what range of environments might they be found in, how do their properties depend on those of the host star, and what is their potential for habitability?
