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Starry details

Science News, August 16, 2008 by John Myers, Ron Cowen

The article "Astronomers find distant star with a whole set of superEarths" (SN: 7/05/08, p. 7) leaves out some of the most interesting and important information. Is HD 40307 a G-type star like our sun? Which method was used to detect the planets? The article implies Doppler was used, but Doppler could not give the specific masses of planets in the article.

JOHN MYERS, SAN DIEGO, CALIF.

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HD 40307 is a K-type star, spectral class K2.5V. You could call this an orange dwarf star. The researchers used the Doppler method. Technically their measurements give minimum masses. The team probably presented these as the actual masses because the researchers believe the angles of inclination of the orbits are close to 90 degrees and therefore the actual masses are close to the minimums.--RON COWEN

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
 

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