Offering an engaging and complete story of the hunt for new worlds, this volume fully details the detection and exploration of extrasolar planets. It examines the very wide range of extrasolar planets that have been discovered during the past ten years and looks at what can be learned about such planets by studying the bodies in our own solar system. It also discusses the formation of planetary systems, the way in which such systems may evolve and the final systems of planets that result. In addition, the authors demonstrate how life might evolve on an extrasolar planet and how such life might be detected.