Planet occurrence: Doppler and transit surveys

Abstract

Prior to the 1990s, speculations about the occurrence of planets around other stars were based only on planet formation theory, observations of circumstellar disks, and the knowledge that at least one seemingly ordinary star had managed to make a variety of different planets. Since then, Doppler and transit surveys have revealed the population of planets around other Sun-like stars, especially those with orbital periods shorter than a few years. Over the last decade, these surveys have risen to new heights with Doppler spectrographs capable of 1ms-1 precision and space telescopes capable of detecting the transits of Earth-sized planets. This article is a brief introductory review of the knowledge of planet occurrence that has been gained from these surveys.