Synopses & Reviews
The observation and understanding of extra-solar planetary systems has become a very exciting topic that poses challenges to many fields of human knowledge. A few years after the first observational evidence of planets outside the Solar System, this field of research has experienced spectacular developments. One of the characteristics of the field is that it draws together researchers from a variety of fields: astrophysics, geophysics, biochemistry, etc., and opens up new areas for their interactions. This book sets out a synthesis of the advances and points of view of this adventure. Young students, researchers, engineers involved or about to become involved in this challenging quest for extra-solar planets will benefit by reading such a synthetic review.
Synopsis
The question of the existence of other worlds and other living beings has been present in the human quest for knowledge since as far as Epicurus. For centuries this question belonged to the fields of philosophy and theology. The theoretical problem of the formation of the Solar System, and hence of other planetary systems, was tackled only during the 18th century, while the first observational attempts for a detection started less than one hundred years ago. Direct observation of an extra-solar planetary system is an extraordinarily difficult problem: extra-solar planets are at huge distances, are incredibly faint and are overwhelmed by the bright light of their own stars. With virtually no observational insight to test their models, theoreticians have remained for decades in a difficult position to make substantial progress. Yet, the field of stellar formation has provided since the 1980s both the the- oretical and observational evidences for the formation of discs at the stage of star birth and for debris materials orbiting the very young stellar systems. It was tempting to consider that these left-overs might indeed later agglomerate into planetary systems more or less similar to ours. Then came observational evidences for planets outside the Solar System.
Table of Contents
Preface. Jean-Marie Mariotti (1955/1998). List of Participants. Part I: Theory and Modeling. The Unfinished History of Plant Searches; M. Harwit. Latest Stages of Star Formation and Circumstellar Environment of Young Stellar Objects; A. Dutrey. Infalling Material on Young Stars; V.P. Grinin. Protostellar Discs and Planet Formation; J.C.B. Papaloizou, et al. Zodiacal Dust in the Earth Sciences; B. Olsson. Circumstellar Disks and Outer Planet Formation; A. Lecavelier des Etangs. Dynamical Interaction of Planets in the Circumstellar Disk; P. Artymowicz. The New Planetary Systems; D. Queloz. Extrasolar Giant Planet and Brown Dwarf Theory; A. Burrows. From the Interstellar Medium to Planetary Atmospheres via Comets; T. Owen, A. Bar-Nun. Giant Planet Formation: Formation and Growth of Massive Envelopes; G. Wuchterl. Extra-Solar Planets: Atmospheres; J. Kasting. Part II: Observational Methods. Astrometric Techniques; M.M. Colavita. Searching for Unseen Planets via Occultation and Microlensing; P.D. Sackett. Indirect Searches: Doppler Spectroscopy and Pulsar Timing; D. Queloz. Frequency analysis and Extrasolar Planets; M. Konacki, A.J. Maciejewski. Direct Searches: Imaging, Dark Speckle and Coronography; A. Labeyrie. Direct Searches: Interferometric Methods; J.-M. Mariotti. Large Ground-Based Telescopes with High Order Adaptive Optics for Imaging Faint Objects and Extra-Solar Planets; M. Langlois, et al. Reflected Light from Close-in Extrasolar Giant Planets; D. Charbonneau. Strategies for Space Programs; P.Y. Bély. Part III: Astrobiology. Biological Foundations of Life; M.-C. Maurel. The Contributions of ISO to Exoplanetary Systems Research and Astrobiology; P. Claes. Are We Alone in the Cosmos? T.C. Owen. Strategies for Remote Detection of Life; A. Léger. Scenery of Extra-Solar Planet Search, from an Extragalactic Viewpoint; D. Alloin. Subject Index.