Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Extrasolar planets

A neptunian triplet

Nature volume 441, pages 292–293 (2006)Cite this article

Three planets of Neptune mass have been discovered orbiting a Sun-like star known to have an asteroid belt. Exquisite measurements suggest that the search for habitable planets might be easier than assumed.

Our thirst for knowledge of planets orbiting stars similar to the Sun is tempered by the technological challenges of detecting them. We cannot see analogues of the Solar System directly; rather, the presence of extrasolar planets is inferred through effects that they induce on their parent star. The Doppler method, whereby astronomers search for subtle, periodic changes in the apparent speed of a star that result from its gravitational dance with an unseen planetary companion, has yielded all but a handful of the more than 180 known extrasolar planets1. Heavier planets produce larger stellar wobbles, so it is not surprising that most of the worlds discovered so far have more in common with the distant gas and ice giants of the Solar System (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) than with the smaller, closer terrestrial planets from Mercury to Mars.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Three's company.

References

  1. Udry, S., Fischer, D. A. & Queloz, D. in Protostars and Planets V (eds Reipurth, B., Jewitt, D. & Keil, K.) (Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson, in the press).

  2. Lovis, C. et al. Nature 441, 305–309 (2006).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Beichman, C. A. et al. Astrophys. J. 626, 1061–1069 (2005).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bordé, P., Rouan, D. & Léger, A. Astron. Astrophys. 405, 1137–1144 (2003).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Basri, G., Borucki, W. J. & Koch, D. New Astron. Rev. 49, 478–485 (2005).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Charbonneau, D., Brown, T. M., Burrows, A. & Laughlin, G. in Protostars and Planets V (eds Reipurth, B., Jewitt, D. & Keil, K.) (Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson, in the press).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Astronomy, Harvard University, 60 Garden Street, 02138, Massachusetts, Cambridge, USA

    David Charbonneau

Authors
  1. David Charbonneau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Charbonneau, D. A neptunian triplet. Nature 441, 292–293 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/441292a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/441292a

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing