The Keck Search for Extrasolar Planets

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

With Keck I, we are surveying 360 GKM main sequence stars for Doppler periodicities indicative of planetary companions. We present the stellar characteristics of the target list, including Ca II HK emission, ages, and rotation periods. The target list includes only stars older than 2 Gyr to reduce photospheric jitter. The Doppler survey is designed to detect true extrasolar analogs of the giant planets in our Solar System, i.e., Jupiter-mass companions orbiting between 3 - 10 AU. The Keck HIRES spectrometer with an Iodine Cell is currently achieving a Doppler precision of 5 m/s, with improvements yet to be made. The existing precision is just adequate to detect jupiters within 5 AU, which induce reflex velocities of 12.5 m/s X sini. To date we have about 4 Doppler observations of each star, obtained during the past 1.5 yr. Prospective planetary candidates appear already as stars which exhibit velocity variability in excess of the 5 m/s errors by a factor of four. Approximately 5% of the Keck stars exhibit such excess variability, which indicates the occurrence rate of Jupiter-mass companions within 1 AU. Future Keplerian fits to additional Doppler measurements will provide confirmation or rejection of these planetary candidates.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The Keck Search for Extrasolar Planets 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 The Keck Search for Extrasolar Planets, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Keck Search for Extrasolar Planets will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1363528

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.