Spectral classification of stars likely to have planetary systems

AHUMADA, A. V.; CLARIÁ, J. J.; MINNITI, D.

Congreso; 48o Reunion de la Asoc. Arg. de Astronomia; 2005

Since all the techniques used for the detection of extrasolar planets are indirect, the characterization of the detected planets is not always quite certain. Up to the present, around 150 planets have been discovered orbiting other stars. The estimation of planetary masses and radii depends on the physical parameters of the mother stars. Therefore, the more those star's parameters are defined, the more accurate the estimates of the masses and radii of their related planets will be. It is essential to count on a reliable spectral classification of these stars in order to estimate the main astrophysical parameters of the stars that have orbiting planets. In this work, we determine the spectral type and luminosity class of 52 bright stars which are likely to have planetary systems. The spectral classification was performed by comparing low resolution spectra obtained at CASLEO (Argentina) with template spectra taken from the Silva & Cornell (1992) library. 73% of the observed stars proved to be of G spectral type, whereas 94% turned out to be main sequence stars or very close to main sequence.