extrasolar planet

▪ astronomy

also called  exoplanet 

 any planetary body that orbits a star other than the Sun. The first extrasolar planets were discovered in 1992, and within 15 years some 250 were known.

 Because planets are much fainter than the stars they orbit, extrasolar planets are extremely difficult to detect directly. By far the most successful technique for finding and studying extrasolar planets has been the radial velocity method, which measures the motion of host stars in response to gravitational tugs by their planets. The first planet discovered with this technique was 51 Pegasi b in 1995. Radial velocity measurements determine the sizes and shapes of the orbits of extrasolar planets as well as the lower limits of the masses of these planets. A complementary technique is transit photometry, which measures drops in starlight caused by those planets whose orbits are oriented in space such that they periodically pass between their stars and the telescope; transit observations reveal the sizes of planets as well as their orbital periods. Radial velocity data can be combined with transit measurements to yield densities of transiting planets and thereby limit the possible materials of which the planets could be composed. The first detected transiting planet was HD 209458 b in 1999. Both radial velocity and transit techniques are most sensitive to large planets orbiting close to their stars.

      Between 5 and 10 percent of stars surveyed have planets at least 100 times as massive as Earth with orbital periods of a few Earth years or less. Almost 1 percent of stars have such giant planets in very close orbits, with orbital periods of less than one week. In contrast, Jupiter, which has the shortest orbital period of any large planet (i.e., any planet more massive than Earth) in the solar system, takes nearly 12 years to travel around the Sun. Even the closest planet to the Sun, tiny Mercury, requires 88 days to complete an orbit. Models of planetary formation suggest that giant extrasolar planets detected very near their stars were formed at greater distances and migrated inward as a result of gravitational interactions with remnants of the circumstellar disks from which they accumulated.

      The most massive planets that transit their stars are made primarily of the two lightest elements, hydrogen and helium, as are the Sun and its two largest planets, Jupiter and Saturn. Some of these planets seem to be distended in size as a result of heating by their stars. The lowest mass transiting planets contain larger fractions of heavier elements, as do the smaller planets within the solar system.

      The majority of extrasolar planets with orbital periods longer than two weeks have quite eccentric (elongated) orbits. Within the solar system, the planets, especially the larger ones, travel on nearly circular paths about the Sun.

      Stars that contain a larger fraction of heavy elements (i.e., any element aside from hydrogen and helium) are more likely to possess detectable planets. More massive stars are more likely to host planets more massive than Saturn, but this correlation may not exist for smaller planets. Many extrasolar planets orbit stars that are members of binary star systems, and it is common for stars with one detectable planet to have others. The planets detected so far around stars other than the Sun have masses from several to thousands of times that of Earth. Most, if not all, appear to be too massive to support life, but this too is the result of detection biases and does not indicate that planets like Earth are uncommon.

      Research in the field of extrasolar planets is advancing rapidly, as new technologies enable the detection of smaller and more distant planets as well as the characterization of previously detected planets. Almost all the extrasolar planetary systems known appear very different from the solar system, but planets like those within the solar system would be very difficult to find around other stars with current technology. Thus, as more than 90 percent of those stars surveyed do not have detectable planets, it is still not known whether the solar system is normal or unusual. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Kepler mission, scheduled for launch in 2009, will use transit photometry from space to achieve unprecedented sensitivity for small planets with orbital periods of up to two years and should discover whether planets analogous to Earth are common or rare.

Jack J. Lissauer

 

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