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An extrasolar planet or exoplanet is a planet orbiting a star (or remnant of a star) beyond our Solar System. As of autumn 2007, about 250 exoplanets had been discovered around 220 di?erent stars, including nearly two dozen multiple planet systems. No less than ?ve exoplanets have been discovered orbiting the star 55 Cancri; one of the planets has nearly four times the mass of Jupiter, another is comparable with Jupiter in mass, two are slightly less massive than Saturn, while the innermost planet has a mass similar to that of Uranus. Around 2300 years ago, the Greek philosopher Epicurius re?ected on the ex- tence of planets around other stars, and of life on those planets: There are in?nite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours. . . We must believe that in all worlds there are living creatures and plants and other things we see in this world.  th Andinthe16 Century, the medieval scholar Giordano Bruno, in his work De l'in?nito, universo e mondi, speculated: There are countless suns and countless Earths all rotating around their suns in exactly the same way as the seven planets of our system. We see only the suns because they are the largest bodies and are luminous, but their planets remain invisible to us because they are smaller and non-luminous. Thecountlessworldsintheuniversearenoworseandnolessinhabitedthan our Earth.

Space research --- Solar system --- Astrophysics --- Biology --- zonnestelsel --- astrofysica --- biologie --- ruimte (astronomie) --- planeten --- ruimtevaart

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This book, the first in a series of forthcoming volumes, consists of topical and timely reviews of a number of carefully selected topics in solar systemn science. Contributions, in form of up-to-date reviews, are mainly aimed at professional astronomers and planetary scientists wishing to inform themselves about progress in fields closely related to their own field of expertise.

Space research --- Astrophysics --- Geophysics --- astrofysica --- ruimtevaart --- geofysica