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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>

Catalog Bibcode

2011A&A...532A..79S

Bulletin

The EXOPLANETS database table was last updated on 29 December 2012.

References

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

Defining and Cataloguing Exoplanets: the exoplanet.eu Database
   Schneider, J., Dedieu, C., Le Sidaner, P., Savalle, R., Zolotukhin, I.
  <Astr. Ap. 532, A79 (2011)>
  =2011A&A...532A..79S

Provenance

This table is based on the VOTable format of the catalog obtained from the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia website at http://exoplanet.eu/. It is maintained by Jean Schneider and is updated on a frequent 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 M_Jup up to a 2-sigma statistical deviation.

The confidence criteria for planets to be included are: 

R = Planet detections published (or accepted for publication) in refereed
    papers.
S = Planet detections published in papers submitted to professional journals.
C = Planet detections announced by profesionnal astronomers in professional
    conferences.
W = Planet detections announced on a professional website.

HEASARC Implementation

In the form provided by the HEASARC, the parameters in this table are displayed to uniform levels of precision, usually the highest precision for any given parameter entry. In contrast, in its original form the catalog authors list the catalog parameters to varying precisions, depending on their inherent accuracy. The original catalog at http://exoplanet.eu and/or the original reference for the planet determination should always be checked in cases where the user needs to know the accuracy of a given parameter, such as the orbital period. One clue that a given parameter value is being displayed with exaggerated precision in thei HEASARC table is trailing zeroes after the decimal point, e.g., a value of '3848.8600000' would almost certainly only have an intrinsic precision of 0.01.

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_Mass
The mass (or minimum mass) of the extrasolar planet, in Jupiter masses. For planets detected by radial velocity and timing, only the product M.sini, where i is the orbit inclination, is known in general. For transiting planets, i, hence M, is known from the fitting of the transit light curve. For planets detected by astrometry, i is directly inferred from the parent star orbit. For planets detected by radial velocity in multiplanet systems, it can sometimes be inferred from the dynamical analysis of the planet-planet interaction, and in a few years it will be inferred from direct imaging of some planets. Thus, when the inclination is known, rather than the value of M.sini i the true mass value M is given.

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 a of the orbit of the extrasolar planet, in Astronomical Units (AU). When the semi-major axis is not given in a detection paper, it is derived from the published orbital period P and from the mass Mstar of the parent star through the Kepler law, P = 2.pi.sqrt(a3/G.Mstar).

Eccentricity
The eccentricity e of the orbit of the extrasolar planet.

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.

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

Publication_Status
The status of the relevant publication for the planet: 

    R = refereed paper (accepted or published),
    S = submitted paper,
    C = announced in a professional conference,
    W = announced on a professional website.

Discovered_Year
The year in which the planet was discovered. The purpose is not to establish a priority among discoverers. This entry indicates the year of announcement in a professional meeting or the date of submission of a discovery paper. The date of publication is sometimes the year after the date of submission or announcement in a professional conference. The notion of the "year of discovery" is problematic for a few objects such as gamma Cep b and beta Gem b. For these two objects, the authors chose the date of final confirmation. HD 114762 b (~ 12 MJup) was discovered as a confirmed companion in 1989 (Latham et al. 1989, Nature, 339, 38), but it was not baptized as a planet at that time.

Last_Update
The date of the last update to this particular cataloge entry.

Periastron_Longitude
Omega, the longitude of periastron, in degrees, for the case af an elliptical orbit.

Detection_Method
The method of detection for the planet, eg., radial velocity, imaging, transit, pulsar, astrometry, microlensing.

Molecules
Molecules detected in the atmosphere of the planet, if any.

Star_Name
The name of the star which the extrasolar planet orbits.

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

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.

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

Star_Age
The age of the star about which the extrasolar planet orbits, in gigayears.

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

Star_T_Eff
The effective temperature, in K, of the star about which the extrasolar planet orbits.

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

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.

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: 24-Jul-2012