[Previous] | [Session 55] | [Next]

[55.03] Earth-size Planets in the PSR B1257+12 Planetary System

M. Konacki (California Institute of Technology), A. Wolszczan (Penn State University)

The field of extrasolar planets has emerged in 1992 with the detection of three terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the millisecond pulsar PSR B1257+12 by Wolszczan & Frail . The pulsar has been observed with the 305 m Arecibo radiotelescope since its discovery in 1990. The pulse arrival time measurements of the pulsar B1257+12 collected over the years 1990-2003 with the Mark-III and the Penn State Pulsar Machine-1 backends supplemented with the new semi-analytical theory of the dynamics of the PSR B1257+12 planetary system allow us now to determine the masses of the planets B and C. The derived masses are respectively 4.3±.2 and 3.9±.2 Earth masses, making it the first determination of the extrasolar planet masses in the Earth-size regime.

[Previous] | [Session 55] | [Next]

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.