Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2008-02-14
PoS GMC8:034,2007
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
11 pages, 2 figures, published in the 15 February 2008 issue of Science
Scientific paper
10.1126/science.1151947
Searches for extrasolar planets have uncovered an astonishing diversity of planetary systems, yet the frequency of solar system analogs remains unknown. The gravitational microlensing planet search method is potentially sensitive to multiple-planet systems containing analogs of all the solar system planets except Mercury. We report the detection of a multiple-planet system with microlensing. We identify two planets with masses of ~0.71 and ~0.27 times the mass of Jupiter and orbital separations of ~2.3 and ~4.6 astronomical units orbiting a primary star of mass ~0.50 solar masses at a distance of ~1.5 kiloparsecs. This system resembles a scaled version of our solar system in that the mass ratio, separation ratio, and equilibrium temperatures of the planets are similar to those of Jupiter and Saturn. These planets could not have been detected with other techniques; their discovery from only six confirmed microlensing planet detections suggests that solar system analogs may be common.
Abe FR.
Albrow Michael D.
Allan Adam A.
Beaulieu J.-Ph.
Bennett David P.
No associations
LandOfFree
Discovery of a Jupiter/Saturn Analog with Gravitational Microlensing does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Discovery of a Jupiter/Saturn Analog with Gravitational Microlensing, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Discovery of a Jupiter/Saturn Analog with Gravitational Microlensing will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-681917