The landmark discovery of the first multiplanetary extrasolar system ν And twelve years ago
opened a new era in the study of extrasolar planets. The continuous monitoring of the candidate
systems by the radial velocity method has led to the discovery of considerable number of further
multiplanetary systems. Very recently the Kepler satellite brought the field in the limelight by the
breaking discoveries of many multiple transiting systems, some of them hosting several components
with few Earth masses. We discuss the astrophysical importance of the multiplanetary systems and
especially those with transiting components. Special attention will be paid for the expected
contribution to this field by the ground-based wide field photometric surveys and, in particular,
those of HATNet and HATSouth.
|
