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Extrasolar planets

The one that got away

Nature volume 449, pages 147–148 (2007)Cite this article

Hanging around a star that has passed through its red-giant phase doesn't seem a likely place for a planet. But one planet apparently managed to avoid being engulfed by its bloated star — might others, too?

One of the most surprising things that we have learnt about planets during the past 15 years is that they can turn up almost anywhere. On page 189 of this issue, Silvotti et al.1 expand our planet-finding horizon still farther: they have discovered a massive gas-giant planet orbiting an old star in a rare, late stage of the star's evolution. This system allows us to start examining what will happen to planets around stars such as our own Sun as they too evolve and grow old.

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Figure 1: A picture of things to come.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jonathan Fortney is at the NASA Ames Research Center, MS 245-3, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA. jfortney@arc.nasa.gov,

    Jonathan Fortney

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  1. Jonathan Fortney
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Fortney, J. The one that got away. Nature 449, 147–148 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/449147a

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