Browse
this table...

EXOPLANETS - Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia

 HEASARC
Archive

Overview

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia is a working tool, providing all the latest detections and data that have been announced by professional astronomers, Which is intended to be used to facilitate progress in exoplanetology. Ultimately, researchers willing to make a quantitative, scientific use of the catalog can make their own judgement on the likelihood of the data and the detections.

The stellar data (positions, distances, V and other magnitudes, mass, metallicities etc) are taken from Simbad or from professional papers on exoplanets.

Ongoing large extrasolar planets ('exoplanets') projects include: 

    Anglo-Australian Planet Search
      <http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~cgt/planet/AAPS_Home.html>
    California & Carnegie Planet Search
      <http://exoplanets.org/>
    Geneva Extrasolar Planet Search Programmes
      <http://obswww.unige.ch/~udry/planet/planet.html>
    Transatlantic Exoplanet Survey
      <http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~ftod/tres/tres.html>
    University of Texas - Dept. of Astronomy
      <http://www.as.utexas.edu/astronomy/research/ss.html>

Bulletin

The EXOPLANETS database table was last updated on 23 May 2012.

References

Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia
   Schneider, J.
   http://exoplanet.eu/

Provenance

This table is based on the comma-delimited planets table obtained from the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia web site http://exoplanet.eu/ which is maintained by Jean Schneider, and is updated on a daily basis, as needed.

Criteria for inclusion in the catalog

The basic physical criterion is, in principle, the (upper) mass limit of 13 M_Jup (Jupiter masses). This criterion (based on absence of a thermonuclear source of energy) is somewhat arbitrary since a companion could start its formation by dust accretion in a disk and end up with a mass > 13 M_Jup. But, due to the lack of precision in the definition of a planet, this criterion has had to be made more flexible. For instance, if the star has a planetary companion, other companions with masses less than 20 Jupiter masses are included.

An additional difficulty comes from the uncertainty in the mass value (for instance an object with a mass 19 +/- 3 M_Jup could have a true mass value < 13 M_Jup with a 2 sigma statistical deviation (= 12% probability). The Encyclopedia thus finally includes planets with masses < 20 Jup up to a 2 sigma statistical deviation.

The confidence criteria for planets to be included are: 

R = Planet detections published in refereed papers.
S = Planet detections published in papers submitted to professional journals.
C = Planet detections announced by profesionnal astronomers in professional
    conferences.
T = Detections resting only on transits (no radial velocity available) are
    in the "Unconfirmed" section of the catalog.

Parameters

Name
The designation of the planet. For single planetary companions to a host star, the name is generally NNN b where NNN is the parent star name. For multi-planet systems, the planet names are NNN x, where *x = b, c, d, * etc., refers to the chronological order of discovery of the planet. Exceptions are possible, like TrES-1 or planets detected by microlensing. For "free floating" planets, the name is the name given by the discoverers.

RA
The Right Ascension of the planet-hosting star in the specified equinox. This was given in J2000 coordinates to a precision of 1 second of time in the original table.

Dec
The Declination of the planet-hosting star in the specified equinox. This was given in J2000 coordinates to a precision of 1 arcsecond in the original table.

LII
The Galactic Longitude of the planet-hosting star.

BII
The Galactic Latitude of the planet-hosting star.

Planet_Min_Mass
The minimum mass of the extrasolar planet, in Jupiter masses.

Planet_Radius
The radius of the extrasolar planet, in Jupiter radii.

Orbital_Period
The orbital period of the extrasolar planet, in days.

Semi_Major_Axis
The semi-major axis of the orbit of the extrasolar planet, in Astronomical Units (AU).

Eccentricity
The eccentricity of the orbit of the extrasolar planet.

Inclination
The inclination of the orbit of the extrasolar planet to the plane of the sky, in degrees.

Angular_Separation
The angular separation between the extrasolar planet and the star about which it orbits, based on the orbital semi-major-axis and the distance to the system, in arcseconds.

Distance
The distance to the planet-hosting star, in parsecs (pc).

Spect_Type
The spectral type of the star about which the extrasolar planet orbits.

Star_Mass
The mass of the star about which the extrasolar planet orbits, in Solar masses.

Metallicity
The metallicity [Fe/H] of the star about which the extrasolar planet orbits, relative to the solar metallicity on the usual logarithmic scale, i.e., 0.0 implies solar metallicity, 0.3 twice solar, etc.

Vmag
The V magnitude of the star about which the extrasolar planet orbits.

Imag
The I magnitude of the star about which the extrasolar planet orbits.

Hmag
The H magnitude of the star about which the extrasolar planet orbits.

Jmag
The J magnitude of the star about which the extrasolar planet orbits.

Kmag
The K magnitude of the star about which the extrasolar planet orbits.

Star_Radius
The radius of the star about which the extrasolar planet orbits, in Solar radii.

Contact Person

Questions regarding the EXOPLANETS database table can be addressed to the HEASARC User Hotline.

A service of the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA/GSFC and the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory (SAO)

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: 15-Mar-2011