Second smallest extrasolar planet found - HD156668b
Posted: 08.01.2010, 09:53
Press releases for radial velocity planet discoveries seem to operate under the definition that extrasolar planets must be discovered by radial velocity measurements. These releases use m*sin(i) as representative of the planetary mass, and using this quantity there are five known extrasolar planets less massive than HD 156668b.ianmacfarlane wrote:Space.com article - I'm guessing they mean "around a normal star"
And that's before you start to get into the issues of whether that inclination degeneracy means that HD 156668b is truly less massive than extrasolar planets with larger values of m*sin(i)...
PSR B1257+12A is still the smallest known exoplanet, and has been since 1994. Gliese 581e (claimed in that article as the smallest known exoplanet) is only about 2 orders of magnitude more massive...