| Description: | In recent years the number of known exo-planets has rapidly grown thanks to improved indirect detection methods, such as transits and radial velocity measurements. These methods provide valuable information about the formation and evolution of planetary systems, but do not give much additional knowledge about the physical nature of the planets themselves. In addition, most indirect methods are not very sensitive to planets in wide orbits. Direct detection of exo-planets provides information about the planetary atmosphere and is thus an important method to learn more about its composition and physical structure, and allows us to place it in the context of the planetary system in which it orbits. First results using existing high-contrast cameras are exiting and encouraging for the coming years, when dedicated instruments such as SPHERE will search nearby stars for gas-giants in wide orbits. |
