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.
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ISBN-13
978-94-011-4623-4 (9789401146234)
DOI
10.1007/978-94-011-4623-4
Schweitzer Klassifikation
The Unfinished History of Planet Searches.- Latest Stages of Star Formation and Circumstellar Environment of Young Stellar Objects.- Infalling Material on Young Stars.- Protostellar Discs and Planet Formation.- Zodiacal Dust in The Earth Sciences.- Circumstellar Disks and Outer Planet Formation.- Dynamical Interactions of Planets in The Circumstellar Disk.- The New Planetary Systems.- Extra-Solar Giant Planet and Brown Dwarf Theory.- From The Interstellar Medium to Planetary Atmospheres Via Comets.- Convection and Giant Planet Formation.- Extra-Solar Planets: Atmospheres.- Astrometric Techniques.- Searching for Unseen Planets Via Occultation and Microlensing.- Indirect Searches: Doppler Spectroscopy and Pulsar Timing.- Frequency Analysis and Extra-Solar Planets.- Direct Searches: Imaging, Dark Speckle and Coronography.- Direct Searches: Interferometric Methods.- Large Ground-Based Telescopes With High Order Adaptive Optics for Imaging Faint Objects and Extra-Solar Planets.- Reflected Light From Close-In Extrasolar Giant Planets.- Strategies for Space Programs.- Biological Foundations of Life.- The Contributions Of ISO to Exoplanetary Systems Research and Astrobiology.- Are We Alone in The Cosmos? Six Myths and A Mantra.- Strategies for Remote Detection of Life.- The Scenary of Extra-Solar Planet Search, From an Extragalactic Viewpoint.
