Nobel Lecture: 51 Pegasi b and the exoplanet revolution^*

Figure 1

ELODIE spectrograph on display at OHP. On the left we see the échelle grating with the grooves facing us. On the left side, the optical fibers feeding the spectrograph are clearly visible (in orange). On the top sits the cryostat with inside the CCD detector. The “cross-dispersing” optic (not visible) is located in the vertical dark painted holding structure.

Figure 2

Middle cut of ELODIE image of a stellar spectra observed with simultaneous thorium recorded on the CCD. One clearly distinguishes the curved spectroscopic order of the stellar spectra from the interlaced emission spectrum due to simultaneous thorium lamp illuminating the second fiber.

Figure 3

Cumulative histogram of exoplanet discovery ([1]) trough time by various detection techniques. The spectacular growth of transit detection from space is due to the Kepler mission.

Figure 4

Measured mass, radius and orbital period of all known exoplanets ([1]). Color code indicates techniques used to discover the planet (same as Fig. 3). For mass measured by Doppler spectroscopy $\sin i=1$ is considered. Locations of Jupiter, Earth and Venus are indicated for the sake of comparison. A gray scale density map is overlaid to locate “cluster of similar exoplanets” on these diagrams

Figure 5

All known exoplanets ([1]) with a measurement of their mass and radius. Hatched lines indicates model of bulk density for three different compositions. Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune are indicated for the sake of comparison.