Planetary science beyond the boundaries of our Solar System is today in itsinfancy. Until a couple of decades ago, the detailed investigation of theplanetary properties was restricted to objects orbiting inside the Kuiper Belt.Today, we cannot ignore that the number of known planets has increased by twoorders of magnitude nor that these planets resemble anything but the objectspresent in our own Solar System. Whether this fact is the result of a selectionbias induced by the kind of techniques used to discover new planets -mainlyradial velocity and transit - or simply the proof that the Solar System is ararity in the Milky Way, we do not know yet. What is clear, though, is that theSolar System has failed to be the paradigm not only in our Galaxy but even'just' in the solar neighbourhood. This finding, although unsettling, forces usto reconsider our knowledge of planets under a different light and perhapsquestion a few of the theoretical pillars on which we base our current'understanding'. The next decade will be critical to advance in what we shouldperhaps call Galactic planetary science. In this paper, we review highlightsand pitfalls of our current knowledge of this topic and elaborate on how thisknowledge might arguably evolve in the next decade.More critically, we identifywhat should be the mandatory scientific and technical steps to be taken in thisfascinating journey of remote exploration of planets in our Galaxy.
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