The planetary system of upsilon Andromedae

¹ Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taiwan
² Institute of Astronomy & Institute of Space Science, National Central University, Taiwan

Corresponding author: Ing-Guey Jiang, jiang@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw

Received: 1 August 2000
Accepted: 1 December 2000

Abstract

The bright F8 V solar-type star upsilon Andromedae has recently been reported to have a system of three planets of Jovian masses. In order to investigate the orbital stability and mutual gravitational interactions among these extrasolar planets, both forward and backward integrations from the latest observed orbital elements for all three planets' orbits have been performed under the coplanar assumption. We reconfirm that the middle and the outer planet have strong interaction leading to large time variations in the eccentricities of these planets, which was shown by the previous studies. However, we discuss the validity of the ignorance of the innermost planet. We argue that this planetary system is likely to be stable and oscillate around current orbital elements since it was formed. We suggest that one possible way to produce these orbital elements: the innermost planet has very low eccentricity but the outermost planet has high eccentricity could be the interaction with the protostellar disc.