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Astronomy

Bound and unbound planets abound

Nature volume 473, pages 289–291 (2011)Cite this article

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Two teams searching for extrasolar planets have jointly discovered a new population of objects: ten Jupiter-mass planets far from their host stars, or perhaps even floating freely through the Milky Way. See Letter p.349

Two decades ago, we had no idea whether planets orbiting stars other than the Sun existed at all. Today, more than 500 exoplanets have been discovered, and the field of exoplanet research has advanced to become one of the most captivating branches of astronomy. Observational techniques now aim to address questions such as what the atmosphere and weather are like on some of these planets, and to determine their global statistical properties. On page 349 of this issue, the MOA and OGLE research teams1 provide an exciting result for exoplanetary science: the discovery of a population of planets that have roughly the mass of Jupiter and separations from their putative host stars of at least ten times Earth's distance to the Sun.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joachim Wambsganss is at the Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.,

    Joachim Wambsganss

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  1. Joachim Wambsganss
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Correspondence to Joachim Wambsganss.

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Wambsganss, J. Bound and unbound planets abound. Nature 473, 289–291 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/473289a

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