Galactic orbits of stars with planets^*

¹ Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 2, 35122 Padova, Italy e-mail: barmau@pd.astro.it
² Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy e-mail: gratton@pd.astro.it

Corresponding author: M. Barbieri, barmau@pd.astro.it

Received: 7 August 2001
Accepted: 5 December 2001

Abstract

We have reconstructed the galactic orbits of the parent stars of exoplanets. For comparison, we have recalculated the galactic orbits of stars from the Edvardsson et al. ([CITE]) catalog. A comparison between the two samples indicates that stars with planets are not kinematically peculiar. At each perigalactic distance stars with planets have a metallicity systematically larger than the average for the comparison sample. We argue that this result favors scenarios where the presence of planets is the cause of the higher metallicity of stars with planets.