Astrobiology Workshop, Macquarie University July 12-13 2001

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Trying to Explain the New Extrasolar Planets

Sarah Maddison (Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing Swinburne University)

Over the past six years, over 50 confirmed extrasolar planets have been detected using the Doppler shift technique. In this talk, I will briefly describe this technique of finding extrasolar planets, the surprising properties of new planets that have been found, and how they have forced astronomers to rethink planet formation theories, especially in trying to explain the 'hot Jupiters' and 'eccentric super-Jupiters'.