The wobbles caused by orbiting planets will also appear in careful measurements of a star's movement across the sky (or proper motion). Gatewood (Allegheny Observatory) used this method in 1996 to find 2 Jupiter-sized planets orbiting a nearby star, Lalande 21185.

These planets may not be typical of the true numbers and kinds of planets (because of selection effects), but they appear to fall into 3 categories:

• Hot Jupiters (51 Pegasi): planets like Jupiter placed very close to and heated up by the star.
• Eccentric planets (16 Cygni B): planets with eccentric (oval shaped) orbits that swing close to and far from the star.
• Jupiter-like planets (47 Ursa Majoris): planets with a mass and distance from the parent star similar to the case of Jupiter in our Solar System.

Earth-like planets may exist but they are too small to be detected by current measurements of stellar wobble.

Earth-like planets may be detected through planetary transits in which the light from a distant star fades as the planet passes in front from our point of view.