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Research on extrasolar planets is one of the most exciting fields of activity in astrophysics. In a decade only, a huge step forward has been made from the early speculations on the existence of planets orbiting "other stars" to the first discoveries and to the characterization of extrasolar planets. This breakthrough is the result of a growing interest of a large community of researchers as well as the development of a wide range of new observational techniques and facilities. Based on their lectures given at the 31st Saas-Fee Advanced Course, Andreas Quirrenbach, Tristan Guillot and Pat Cassen have written up up-to-date comprehensive lecture notes on the "Detection and Characterization of Extrasolar Planets", "Physics of Substellar Objects Interiors, Atmospheres, Evolution" and "Protostellar Disks and Planet Formation". This book will serve graduate students, lecturers and scientists entering the field of extrasolar planets as detailed and comprehensive introduction

K2-18 is a nearby M2.5 dwarf, located at 34 pc and hosting a transiting planet that was first discovered by the K2 mission and later confirmed with Spitzer Space Telescope observations. With a radius of ∼2 R and an orbital period of ∼33 days, the planet lies in the temperate zone of its host star and receives stellar irradiation similar to that of Earth. Here we perform radial velocity follow-up observations with the visual channel of CARMENES with the goal of determining the mass and density of the planet. We measure a planetary semi-amplitude of K ∼ 3.5 and a mass of M ∼ 9 M , yielding a bulk density around . This indicates a low-mass planet with a composition consistent with a solid core and a volatile-rich envelope. A signal at 9 days was recently reported using radial velocity measurements taken with the HARPS spectrograph. This was interpreted as being due to a second planet. We see a weaker, time- and wavelength-dependent signal in the CARMENES data set and thus favor stellar activity for its origin. K2-18 b joins the growing group of low-mass planets detected in the temperate zone of M dwarfs. The brightness of the host star in the near-infrared makes the system a good target for detailed atmospheric studies with the James Webb Space Telescope.K2-18 is a nearby M2.5 dwarf, located at 34 pc and hosting a transiting planet that was first discovered by the K2 mission and later confirmed with Spitzer Space Telescope observations. With a radius of similar to 2 R-circle plus and an orbital period of similar to 33 days, the planet lies in the temperate zone of its host star and receives stellar irradiation similar to that of Earth. Here we perform radial velocity follow-up observations with the visual channel of CARMENES with the goal of determining the mass and density of the planet. We measure a planetary semi-amplitude of K-b similar to 3.5 m s(-1). and a mass of M-b similar to 9 M-circle plus, yielding a bulk density around rho(b) similar to 4 g cm(-3). This indicates a low-mass planet with a composition consistent with a solid core and a volatile-rich envelope. A signal at 9 days was recently reported using radial velocity measurements taken with the HARPS spectrograph. This was interpreted as being due to a second planet. We see a weaker, time-and wavelength-dependent signal in the CARMENES data set and thus favor stellar activity for its origin. K2-18 b joins the growing group of low-mass planets detected in the temperate zone of M dwarfs. The brightness of the host star in the near-infrared makes the system a good target for detailed atmospheric studies with the James Webb Space Telescope.© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. ; CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Insitut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia, and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation (DFG), the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and the Junta de Andalucia. P.S. would like to thank Christoph Mordasini for his helpful comments on an early draft and Sudeshna Boro-Saikia for her help on calculating the calcium indices of the HARPS data set. I.R. and J.C.M. acknowledge support by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) through grant ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R, as well as the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA program. A.P.H. acknowledges the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant HA 3279/11-1. J.A.C., P.J.A. and D.M. acknowledge support by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) from projects AYA2016-79425-C3-1, 2, 3-P. V.J.S.B. is supported by program AYA2015-69350-C3-2-P from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO). We thank the anonymous referee for useful comments that improved the paper.

Hot gas giant exoplanets can lose part of their atmosphere due to strong stellar irradiation, and these losses can affect their physical and chemical evolution. Studies of atmospheric escape from exoplanets have mostly relied on space-based observations of the hydrogen Lyman-a line in the far ultraviolet region, which is strongly affected by interstellar absorption. Using ground-based high-resolution spectroscopy, we detected excess absorption in the helium triplet at 1083 nanometers during the transit of the Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-69b, at a signal-to-noise ratio of 18. We measured line blueshifts of several kilometers per second and posttransit absorption, which we interpret as the escape of part of the atmosphere trailing behind the planet in comet-like form.© 2018 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved. ; CARMENES is an instrument for the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman de Calar Alto (CAHA, Almeria, Spain). CARMENES is funded by the German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), the European Union through FEDER/ERF FICTS-2011-02 funds, and the members of the CARMENES Consortium (Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Landessternwarte Konigstuhl, Institut de Ciencies de l'Espai, Insitut fur Astrophysik Gottingen, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Hamburger Sternwarte, Centro de Astrobiologia, and Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman), with additional contributions by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the German Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation Programme and Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG) Research Unit FOR2544 >Blue Planets around Red Stars,> the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Niedersachsen, and by the Junta de Andalucia. We acknowledge funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) through grants ESP2016-80435-C2-1-R, ESP 2016-76076-R, ESP2014-54362-P, ESP 2014-54062-R, AYA2016-79425-C3-2-P, AYA2016-79425-C3-1-P, AYA2016-79425C3-2-P, AYA2014-54348-C3-1-R, and AYA2016-79425-C3-3-P. We also acknowledge funding through the DFG through grants DFG DR281/32-1, RE 1664/14-1, DFG SFB 676, and DFG SCHM 1032/57-1 and by the Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR) through grants DLR 50 OR 1710, DLR 50 OR 1307, and BMWi50OR1505, as well as the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya/CERCA program. I.A.G.S. and F.J.A.-F. acknowledge funding from the research program VICI 639.043.107 funded by the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 694513. G.C. acknowledges support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 11503088) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant BK20151051).