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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2009
The discovery of more than one hundred extrasolar planet candidates challenges our understanding of star and planet formation. Do we need to modify theories that were mostly developed for the Solar System in order to understand giant planets orbiting their host stars with periods of a few days? Or do we have to assume particular circumstances for the formation of the Sun to understand the special properties of the Solar System planets? I review the theories of star and planet formation and outline processes that may be responsible for the diversity of planetary systems in general. I discuss two questions raised by extrasolar planets: (1) the formation of Pegasi planets and (2) the relation between discovered extrasolar planets and the metallicity of their host stars. Finally, I discuss the role of migration in planet formation and describe three tests to distinguish whether planets migrated long distances or formed near their final orbits.
Witnessing the discovery
What happened to the theory of star and planet formation when almost ten years ago, in October 1995, Mayor and Queloz (1995) announced that they had found a planet, in a four day orbit around the fifth magnitude star 51 Pegasi? Theory at this time was preparing for the discovery of extrasolar planets in orbits around common main-sequence stars. Yet the first discoveries seemed to lie well in the future, not to be expected before the start of the new, the third, millennium.
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