OGLE-TR-111b is an

extrasolar planet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

approximately 5,000 light-years away in the constellation of

Carina Carina may refer to: Places Australia * Carina, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane * Carina Heights, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane * Carina, Victoria, a locality in Mildura Serbia * Carina, Osečina, a village in the Kolubara District ...

(the

Keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

). The planet is currently the only confirmed planet orbiting the star OGLE-TR-111 (though a possible second planet is plausible). In 2002 the

Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) is a Polish astronomical project based at the University of Warsaw that runs a long-term variability sky survey (1992–present). The main goals are the detection and classification of variable ...

(OGLE) survey detected that the light from the star periodically dimmed very slightly every 4 days, indicating a

planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

-sized body

transit Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world * ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...

ing the star. But since the mass of the object had not been measured, it was not clear that it was a true planet, low-mass red dwarf or something else. In 2004 radial velocity measurements showed unambiguously that the transiting body is indeed a planet. The planet is probably very similar to the other

hot Jupiter Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to their stars and high surface-atmosphere tem ...

s orbiting nearby stars. Its mass is about half that of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

and it orbits the star at a distance less than 1/20th that of

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

from the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. OGLE-TR-111b has similar mass and orbital distance as the first transiting planet,

HD 209458 b HD 209458 b, which is also nicknamed Osiris after the Egyptian god, is an exoplanet that orbits the solar analog HD 209458 in the constellation Pegasus, some from the Solar System. The radius of the planet's orbit is , or one-eighth the radius ...

(Osiris). But unlike it, the planet has a radius comparable to Jupiter which is typical to other transiting planets detected by OGLE. However, those other planets tend to be more massive and orbit even closer than typical hot Jupiters. Therefore, this planet is an important "missing link" between the different types of transiting planets.

References

External links

Hot Jupiters Transiting exoplanets Exoplanets discovered in 2002 Giant planets Carina (constellation) {{extrasolar-planet-stub

See also

References

External links