Planet Factory: Exoplanets and the Search for a Second Earth

Just twenty years ago, the search for planets — and life — beyond the Solar System was the realm of science fiction writers. Today, it is one of the most dynamically developing areas of astronomical science, and the number of discovered exoplanets is already in the thousands. The discovery of these worlds has only become possible in the last decade. The year 2016 was particularly 'bountiful,' largely due to the active work of the Kepler space telescope. These new worlds are nothing like the fantasies of writers — planets larger than Jupiter, where a year lasts only a week, planets orbiting the remnants of dead stars, planets with two suns in the sky, and planets completely without a sun. Somewhere out there exist Earth-sized worlds, on one half of which it is always day, while the other half is in eternal night, water worlds whose entire surface is hidden beneath thick oceans, and lava worlds erupting seas of magma. 'Planet Factory' is a story about exoplanets, that is, planets orbiting stars beyond our Solar System.