Space missions for the detection of exo-planets: The European efforts

The search for other planetary systems has raised considerable interest in Europe during the last decade. The recent indirect discovery of extra-solar planets around nearby solar-type stars has been considered as the answer to a long standing conjecture, even if the physical nature and location of these planets were completely unexpected. Indeed, several space missions with a possible impact on the topic of exo-planets have been proposed during the recent years: this includes searches by photometric transit (STARS, COROT), by global astrometry (GAIA), and by direct imaging in the infrared (DARWIN). The latter is a mission dedicated to nearby exo-planets, both as a searching survey and for the characterization of the atmospheres of Earth-like candidates through infrared spectroscopy, with special emphasis on the search for exo-life tracers.