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A Jupiter-mass companion to a solar-type star

Nature volume 378, pages 355–359 (1995)Cite this article

The presence of a Jupiter-mass companion to the star 51 Pegasi is inferred from observations of periodic variations in the star’s radial velocity. The companion lies only about eight million kilometres from the star, which would be well inside the orbit of Mercury in our Solar System. This object might be a gas-giant planet that has migrated to this location through orbital evolution, or from the radiative stripping of a brown dwarf.

FOR more than ten years, several groups have been examining the radial velocities of dozens of stars, in an attempt to identify orbital motions induced by the presence of heavy planetary companions1 5. The precision of spectrographs optimized for Doppler studies and currently in use is limited to about 15ms"1. As the reflex motion of the Sun due to Jupiter is 13 ms1, all current searches are limited to the detection of objects with at least the mass of Jupiter (Mj). So far, all precise Doppler surveys have failed to detect any jovian planets or brown dwarfs.

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  1. Geneva Observatory, 51 Chemin des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland

    Michel Mayor & Didier Queloz

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  1. Michel Mayor
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  2. Didier Queloz
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Correspondence to Michel Mayor.

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Mayor, M., Queloz, D. A Jupiter-mass companion to a solar-type star. Nature 378, 355–359 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/378355a0

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