Fitting orbits

Extract

Nowadays, more than one hundred extra-solar planets are known, and about a dozen of multi-planetary systems have been discovered. Most of them have been detected by the radial velocity (RV) method. The recovery of orbital parameters from RV data leads to several problems. Usually RV data cover irregularly a short time interval which is frequently shorter than the orbital period of the most distant planet. Moreover, observations contain a noise due to the instabilities of the star. The distribution of this noise is unknown. A precise determination of the dynamical state of a multi-planetary system is important for understanding its stability and evolution. In most cases observers determine the orbital parameters for multi-planetary systems just fitting a sum of Keplerian orbits. The parameters obtained in such a way are in most cases the only accessible data about an extra-solar system because the observes very rarely publish their observations. However, the parameters from a multi-Keplerian fit as it has already been observed by many authors, cannot be interpreted as the osculating elements for actual planetary orbits. Moreover, these parameters can be considered as Keplerian elements of: relative, barycentric or Jacobi orbits. One can find arguments that the interpretation of parameters from a multi-Keplerian fit as elements of Keplerian orbits in the Jacobi coordinates is the most proper one, see [Lee and Peale, 2002; Goździewski et al. 2003].To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html