Beyond the 8 planets around the sun more than 3000 planets have been found around other stars. One of them is in orbit around Proxima Centauri at a distance of just 4 light years, others are as far as thousands of light years away. Let's have a look at how these so-called exoplanets have been detected, how their physical and orbital properties compare to the architecture of the solar system, and what kind of discoveries we can expect during our lifetimes. [mehr]