EXTRASOLAR PLANETS

Astronomers know of over 100 extrasolar planets, or planets orbiting other sun-like stars. To date, almost all detections have used the Doppler wobble technique, which (at this point in time) has an overwhelming bias (and limitation) toward identifying giant planets very close to the parent star. The frequency of detection is about one extrasolar planet (or planet system) per 10-20 stars observed (~5-10%). As you browse this material keep in mind that the reported planet mass is a minimum mass, and that on average the actual mass will be about 30% more than the reported value {this results from the fact that the orbit in general is tilted by an unknown amount relative to our line of sight}.

http://www.public.asu.edu/~sciref/exoplnt.htm
Great web-page summarizing history, methods, and results of search for extrasolar planets.

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/planets/overview.html
On this page, click on "diagram of methods" to get a nice picture illustrating the various potential methods for planet detection. You’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the picture.

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/planets/
Encyclopedia of extrasolar planets.

http://exoplanets.org/
U. Cal. planet search project, with some good illustrations.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search?extrasolar+planet
Click here to bring up a list of 12 APOD days that I got from searching on the phrase "extrasolar planet".

Read the article "Migrating Planets," by Renu Malhotta, in Scientific American, September 1999, page 56 for an explanation of how massive planets can end up close to Sun-like stars. To use WCC library online services to view contents of magazine articles, see the instructions for using Ebsco (whether from on-campus or someplace else).