Introduction
Extrasolar Planets means any planet that is outside our solar system. Ever since we found 51 Pegasi, we have been finding them at an astonishing rate. It was discovered by Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz on October 6th 1995. They discovered the planet by observing the star and noticed it wobbled. With further investigation, they realised that this wobble could be caused by planet circling it. The planet has the unofficial name of Bellerophon. When a large object such as Jupiter travels round the Sun, it causes it to wobble because of its sheer mass. The sizes of these planets that we've been finding are on a scale equal to that of Jupiter or bigger. It is believed by many scientists that most if not all of these newly discovered planets are gas giants which will mean that they are incapable to supporting life. A lot of these exoplanets whizz round their stars at an astonishing speed and some are really close to their star. With probably one or two exceptions, all the planets are found round insignificant stars, some of which you couldn't see if you looked up at the stars.

Alien-Life
Discovering planets increases the chances that we're not alone in the galaxy. We'll never be able to get to these planets unless we find out a way of generating wormholes. These planets to support life would have to be in the Goldilocks zone. This zone is named after the the fairy-tale which means its not too hot and its not too cold to support life. The planet HD 209458 b has spotted leaking oxygen. Its distance from the Sun, and orbital length can effectively rule it out of contention for supporting life.

What's next?
The NASA space probe Kepler is about to be launched (2006) to scan the stars for Earth sized planets if there are nearby. This will provide the basis for two future missions, 'Space Interferometry Mission' (2009) whose primary mission is to measure the distances of the stars more accurately. Its second mission is to scan for planets. However the big mission will come in (2012-2015) when the 'Terrestrial Planet Finder' will be launched whose primary mission will be checking for planets and whether the planet is capable of supporting life.

Artists Impression of a World
The below series of pictures are what Dave using Terragen imagined what a extrasolar planet would look like. He came with a Mars-Like planet called Olanis. The planet is obviously not-suitable for hosting life. However the planet in the background Crumaria could contain life.

List of Discovered Planets
The table below contains a list of some, not all planets that have so far been discovered. The source of the data has come from N.A.S.A. .

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