Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0606024

From: Zsolt S\'andor [view email]

Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 13:49:15 GMT (324kb)

Estimations of orbital parameters of exoplanets from transit photometry by using dynamical constraints

Authors: Zsolt Sandor

Comments: 16 pages, 10 figures, accepted for Cel. Mech. Dyn. Astron

The probability of the detection of Earth-like exoplanets may increase in the near future after the launch of the space missions using the transit photometry as observation method. By using this technique only the semi-major axis of the detected planet can be determined, and there will be no information on the upper limit of its orbital eccentricity. However, the orbital eccentricity is a very important parameter, not only from a dynamical point of view, since it gives also information on the climate and the habitability of the Earth-like planets. In this paper a possible procedure is suggested for confining the eccentricity of an exoplanet discovered by transit photometry if an already known giant planet orbits also in the system.

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0606024