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This exciting tour of our Universe explores our current knowledge of exoplanets and the search for another Earth-like planet. Beginning with the basic concepts of planet formation and the composition of the Universe, Stuart Ross Taylor summarises our knowledge of exoplanets, how they compare with our planets and why some stars have better habitable zones. Further sections provide a detailed study of our Solar System, as a basis for understanding exoplanetary systems, and a detailed study of the Earth as our only current example of a habitable planet. The book concludes with a philosophical and historical discussion of topics surrounding planets and the development of life, including why our chances of finding aliens on exoplanets is very low. This is an engaging and informative read for anyone interested in planetary formation and the exploration of our Universe.

Extrasolar planets. --- Exo-planets --- Exoplanets --- Extra-solar planets --- Planets --- Stars with planets --- Solar system. --- Milky Way

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Exoplanet research is one of the most explosive subjects in astronomy today. More than 500 exoplanets are now known, and groups world-wide are actively involved in a broad range of observational and theoretical efforts. This book ties together these many avenues of investigation - from the perspectives of observation, technology and theory - to give a comprehensive, up-to-date review of the entire field. All areas of exoplanet investigation are covered, making it a unique and valuable guide for researchers in astronomy and planetary science, including those new to the field. It treats the many different techniques now available for exoplanet detection and characterisation, the broad range of underlying physics, the overlap with related topics in solar system and Earth sciences, and the concepts underpinning future developments. It emphasises the interconnection between the various fields and provides extensive references to more in-depth treatments and reviews.

Extrasolar planets --- Extrasolar planets. --- Astrometry. --- Astronomy. --- Positional astronomy --- Spherical astronomy --- Exo-planets --- Exoplanets --- Extra-solar planets --- Planets --- Stars with planets

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The space vehicle spectaculars of recent years have been revealing the full scope and beauty of our own solar system but have also shown that a growing number of other stars too have planetary bodies orbiting around them. It seems that our galaxy contains untold numbers of planets, and presumably other galaxies are similar to our own.

Planets. --- Extrasolar planets. --- Exo-planets --- Exoplanets --- Extra-solar planets --- Planets --- Stars with planets --- Solar system. --- Milky Way

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Exoplanet, extrasolar planet, exoEarth, exojupiter: neologisms still absent from many dictionaries. These terms are, however, current among astronomers, and are heard in their answers to a question already two millennia old: are there planets like ours elsewhere in the Universe? Greek atomists such as Epicurus were convinced of the existence of an infinite number of solar systems like our own, but it was only in 1995 that a real answer began to emerge. An extrasolar planet had been detected... a planet orbiting another star... a star like the Sun. So, the solar system was not unique! By mid- 2006 more than 200 giant exoplanets had been discovered. At this rate of discovery it seems that Earth-like planets may be found within a decade. The discovery of exoplanets held some surprises, in that they exhibited very different characteristics from what might have been expected. Although most of them are gas giants of masses comparable to Jupiter's mass, as a result of the rather insensitive nature of current detection methods, why are they from ten to fifty times closer to their stars than is Jupiter? How were these 'hot Jupiters' formed? Another surprise about exoplanets is that many of them have very elliptical orbits, while the planets of the solar system have much more circular orbits.

Extrasolar planets. --- Stars with planets. --- SWP (Stars with planets) --- SWPs (Stars with planets) --- Stars --- Extrasolar planets --- Exo-planets --- Exoplanets --- Extra-solar planets --- Planets --- Stars with planets --- Astronomy. --- Astrobiology. --- Popular Science in Astronomy. --- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology. --- Astronomy, Observations and Techniques. --- Astrobiology --- Biology --- Habitable planets --- Life --- Origin --- Astrophysics. --- Observations, Astronomical. --- Astronomy—Observations. --- Astronomical observations --- Observations, Astronomical --- Astronomical physics --- Astronomy --- Cosmic physics --- Physics

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This thesis presents accurate analyses of the spin-orbit angle for many remarkable transiting exoplanetary systems, including the first measurement of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for a multiple transiting system.   The author presents the observational methods needed to probe the spin-orbit angle, the relation between the stellar spin axis and planetary orbital axis. Measurements of the spin-orbit angle provide us a unique and valuable opportunity to understand the origin of close-in giant exoplanets, called "hot Jupiters".   The first method introduced involves observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect (RM effect). The author points out the issues with the previous theoretical modeling of the RM effect and derives a new and improved theory. Applications of the new theory to observational data are also presented for a number of remarkable systems, and the author shows that the new theory minimizes the systematic errors by applying it to the observational data.   The author also describes another method for constraining the spin-orbit angle: by combining the measurements of stellar flux variations due to dark spots on the stellar surface, with the projected stellar rotational velocity measured via spectroscopy, the spin-orbit angles "along the line-of-sight" are constrained for the transiting exoplanetary systems reported by the Kepler space telescope.

Planets --- Extrasolar planets. --- Orbits. --- Exo-planets --- Exoplanets --- Extra-solar planets --- Stars with planets --- Planetary orbits --- Orbits --- Kepler's laws --- Astrophysics. --- Planetology. --- Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics, Space Exploration and Astronautics). --- Astronomy, Observations and Techniques. --- Planetary sciences --- Planetology --- Astronomical physics --- Astronomy --- Cosmic physics --- Physics --- Space sciences. --- Observations, Astronomical. --- Astronomy—Observations. --- Astronomical observations --- Observations, Astronomical --- Science and space --- Space research --- Cosmology --- Science