Abstract
The discovery of planets outside of our Solar System has been accompanied by numerous surprises. The field of exoplanets has undergone enormous diversification over the past 20 years. The reasons for this include (but are not limited to) new detection techniques, longer period baseline, smaller mass/radius sensitivity, and atmosphere detection and modeling. As a result of these developments, we are able to accurately characterize the orbits of exoplanets and infer properties of their atmosphere’s surface conditions. Figure 1 demonstrates the rapid rate at which the field has grown and the new techniques, most particularly the transit method, which have greatly enriched both the number and diversity of the discoveries. The sensitivity of radial velocity and transit surveys to planets at longer periods is fundamentally limited by the survey duration. Many of the radial velocity surveys are now pushing this detection threshold beyond orbital periods of 10 years and with upgraded instruments are sensitive to masses only a few times that of the Earth.
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Kane, S.R. (2013). Exoplanets and Habitability. In: de Vera, JP., Seckbach, J. (eds) Habitability of Other Planets and Satellites. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 28. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6546-7_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6546-7_13
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