The basic geometry of the Solar System—the shapes, spacings, and orientations of the
planetary orbits—has long been a subject of fascination as well as inspiration for planet …

Adaptive optics is a prime example of how progress in observational astronomy can be
driven by technological developments. At many observatories it is now considered to be part …

The SpHere INfrared Exoplanet (SHINE) project is a 500-star survey performed with
SPHERE on the Very Large Telescope for the purpose of directly detecting new substellar …

High-contrast adaptive optics (AO) imaging is a powerful technique to probe the
architectures of planetary systems from the outside-in and survey the atmospheres of self …

Planet formation theories predict that some planets may be ejected from their parent systems
as result of dynamical interactions and other processes,,. Unbound planets can also be …

In the solar system giant planets come in two flavours: gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) with
massive gas envelopes, and ice giants (Uranus and Neptune) with much thinner envelopes …

High-contrast near-infrared imaging of the nearby star HR 8799 has shown three giant
planets. Such images were possible because of the wide orbits (> 25 astronomical units …

The formation of planetary cores must proceed rapidly in order for the giant planets to
accrete their gaseous envelopes before the dissipation of the protoplanetary gas disc (≲ 3 …

Since 1995, more than 500 exoplanets have been detected using different techniques,, of
which 12 were detected with gravitational microlensing,. Most of these are gravitationally …

Observations in the past decade have revealed extrasolar planets with a wide range of
orbital semimajor axes and eccentricities. Based on the present understanding of planet …