THEORETICAL-MODELS OF EXTRASOLAR GIANT PLANETS

The recent discoveries of giant planets around nearby stars has galvan ized the planetary science community, astronomers, and the public at l arge. Since direct detection is now feasible, and is suggested by the recent acquisition of GI229 B, it is crucial for the future of extraso lar planet searches that the fluxes, evolution, and physical structure of objects from Saturn's mass to 15 Juipter masses be theoretically i nvestigated. We discuss our first attempts to explore the characterist ics of extrasolar giant planets (EGPs), in aid of both NASA's and ESA' s recent plans to search for such planets around nearby stars.