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Old December 17th 06, 01:14 PM posted to sci.astro.seti
Joseph Lazio
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Default A limit on the presence of Earth-mass planets around a Sun-like star

In my perusing of astro-ph:

astro-ph/0610159

Title: A limit on the presence of Earth-mass planets around a Sun-like star
Authors: Eric Agol (University of Washington) Jason H. Steffen (Fermilab)
Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 16 pages, 9 figures
Report-no: FERMILAB-PUB-06-279-A-CD

We present a combined analysis of all publicly available, visible HST
observations of transits of the planet HD 209458b. We derive the times
of transit, planet radius, inclination, period, and ephemeris. The
transit times are then used to constrain the existence of secondary
planets in the system. We show that planets near an Earth mass can be
ruled out in low-order mean-motion resonance, while planets less than
an Earth mass are ruled out in interior, 2:1 resonance. We also
present a combined analysis of the transit times and 68 high precision
radial velocity measurements of the system. These results are compared
to theoretical predictions for the constraints that can be placed on
secondary planets.

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