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The IAU working definition of an exoplanet — New Astronomy Reviews

Revision a1544493-0d99-40c5-b164-baf80736e557 · 11/5/2026, 10:48:13 PM UTC
Key
lecavelier2022iau
Authors
Lecavelier des Etangs, Alain; Lissauer, Jack J.
Issued
2022-6
Type
article-journal
Container
New Astronomy Reviews
Volume
94
Pages
101641
Raw CSL JSON
{
  "DOI": "10.1016/j.newar.2022.101641",
  "URL": "https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03631543",
  "page": "101641",
  "type": "article-journal",
  "title": "The IAU working definition of an exoplanet",
  "author": [
    {
      "given": "Alain",
      "family": "Lecavelier des Etangs"
    },
    {
      "given": "Jack J.",
      "family": "Lissauer"
    }
  ],
  "issued": {
    "date-parts": [
      [
        2022,
        6
      ]
    ]
  },
  "volume": "94",
  "accessed": {
    "date-parts": [
      [
        2026,
        11,
        5
      ]
    ]
  },
  "container-title": "New Astronomy Reviews"
}

Claims

  1. The IAU working definition of an exoplanet, as amended in August 2018 by IAU Commission F2, covers objects below the deuterium-fusion limit (about 13 Jupiter masses for solar metallicity) that orbit stars, brown dwarfs or stellar remnants, and whose mass ratio to the central object is below about 1/25, regardless of how they formed.
    "Objects with true masses below the limiting mass for thermonuclear fusion of deuterium (currently calculated to be 13 Jupiter masses for objects of solar metallicity) that orbit stars, brown dwarfs or stellar remnants and that have a mass ratio with the central object below the L4/L5 instability (M/Mcentral < 2/(25+√621) ≈ 1/25) are "planets", no matter how they formed."
    Locator: section: Abstract · Quote language: en
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