Hunt For Substellar Objects
According to Nelson & Angel (1998), Eta Cephei would show two significant periodicities of 164 days and 10 years respectively, hinting at the possible presence of one or more jovian planets in orbit around the subgiant. The authors have set an upper limit of 0.64 Jupiter masses for the putative inner planet and 1.2 Jupiter masses for the putative outer one. Also Campbell et al. (1988) inferred the existence of planetary objects or even brown dwarfs less massive than 16.3 Jupiter masses.
However, more recent studies have not yet confirmed the existence of any substellar companion around Eta Cephei. McDonald Observatory team has set limits to the presence of one or more planets with masses between 0.13 and 2.4 Jupiter masses and average separations spanning between 0.05 and 5.2 AU.
| Companion |
Mass | Semimajor axis |
Orbital period |
Eccentricity | Radius |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b | ≥0.64 MJ | 0.638 | 163.57 | ?0.17 | — |
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