An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet beyond our solar system, orbiting a star other than our Sun. As of 19 October 2009 (2009 -10-19), 403 exoplanets are listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. The vast majority have been detected through radial velocity observations and other indirect methods rather than actual imaging. Most of the discovered exoplanets are massive gas giant planets thought to resemble Jupiter, however this is...
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An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet beyond our solar system, orbiting a star other than our Sun. As of 19 October 2009 (2009 -10-19), 403 exoplanets are listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. The vast majority have been detected through radial velocity observations and other indirect methods rather than actual imaging. Most of the discovered exoplanets are massive gas giant planets thought to resemble Jupiter, however this is believed to be an effect of sampling bias because gas giants are easier to detect with current technology. Projections based on recent detections of much smaller worlds suggest that lightweight, rocky planets will eventually be found to outnumber extrasolar gas giants.
Extrasolar planets became a subject of scientific investigation in the mid-19th century. Many astronomers supposed that such planets existed, but they had no way of knowing how common they were or how similar they might be to the planets of our solar system. The first confirmed...
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