We present the first measurement of the planet frequency beyond the "snow line," for the planet-to-star mass-ratio interval −4.5 < log q < −2, corresponding to the range of ice giants to gas giants. We find d 2 N pl d log q d log s = (0.36 ± 0.15) dex −2 at the mean mass ratio q = 5 × 10 −4 with no discernible deviation from a flat (Öpik's law) distribution in logprojected separation s. The determination is based on a sample of six planets detected from intensive follow-up observations of high-magnification (A > 200) microlensing events during 2005-2008. The sampled host stars have a typical mass M host ∼ 0.5 M , and detection is sensitive to planets over a range of planet-star-projected separations (s −1 max R E , s max R E), where R E ∼ 3.5 AU (M host /M) 1/2 is the Einstein radius and s max ∼ (q/10 −4.3) 1/3. This corresponds to deprojected separations roughly three times the "snow line." We show that the observations of these events have the properties of a "controlled experiment," which is what permits measurement of absolute planet frequency. High-magnification events are rare, but the survey-plus-follow-up high-magnification channel is very efficient: half of all high-mag events were successfully monitored and half of these yielded planet detections. The extremely high sensitivity of high-mag events leads to a policy of monitoring them as intensively as possible, independent of whether they show evidence of planets. This is what allows us to construct an unbiased sample. The planet frequency derived from microlensing is a factor 8 larger than the one derived from Doppler studies at factor ∼25 smaller star-planet separations (i.e., periods 2-2000 days). However, this difference is basically consistent with the gradient derived from Doppler studies (when extrapolated well beyond the separations from which it is measured). This suggests a universal separation distribution across 2 dex in planet-star separation, 2 dex in mass ratio, and 0.3 dex in host mass. Finally, if all planetary systems were "analogs" of the solar system, our sample would have yielded 18.2 planets (11.4 "Jupiters," 6.4 "Saturns," 0.3 "Uranuses," 0.2 "Neptunes") including 6.1 systems with two or more planet detections. This compares to six planets including one twoplanet system in the actual sample, implying a first estimate of 1/6 for the frequency of solar-like systems.

We present high-precision photometry of two transit events of the extrasolar planetary system WASP-5, obtained with the Danish 1.54-m telescope at European Southern Obseratory La Silla.\ud In order to minimize both random and flat-fielding errors, we defocused the telescope so its point spread function approximated an annulus of diameter 40 pixel (16 arcsec). Data reduction was undertaken using standard aperture photometry plus an algorithm for optimally combining the ensemble of comparison stars. The resulting light curves have point-to-point scatters of 0.50 mmag for the first transit and 0.59 mmag for the second. We construct detailed signal to noise ratio calculations for defocused photometry, and apply them to our observations. We\ud model the light curves with the JKTEBOP code and combine the results with tabulated predictions from theoretical stellar evolutionary models to derive the physical properties of the WASP-5 system. We find that the planet has a mass of Mb = 1.637 ± 0.075 ± 0.033 MJup, a radius of Rb = 1.171 ± 0.056 ± 0.012 R Jup, a large surface gravity of gb = 29.6 ± 2.8ms−2 and a density of ρb = 1.02 ± 0.14 ± 0.01 ρJup (statistical and systematic uncertainties). The planet’s high equilibrium temperature of T eq = 1732 ± 80K makes it a good candidate for detecting secondary eclipses

Until now, rings have been detected in the Solar System exclusively around the four giant planets. Here we report the discovery of the first minor-body ring system around the Centaur object (10199) Chariklo, a body with equivalent radius 124$\pm$9 km. A multi-chord stellar occultation revealed the presence of two dense rings around Chariklo, with widths of about 7 km and 3 km, optical depths 0.4 and 0.06, and orbital radii 391 and 405 km, respectively. The present orientation of the ring is consistent with an edge-on geometry in 2008, thus providing a simple explanation for the dimming of Chariklo's system between 1997 and 2008, and for the gradual disappearance of ice and other absorption features in its spectrum over the same period. This implies that the rings are partially composed of water ice. These rings may be the remnants of a debris disk, which were possibly confined by embedded kilometre-sized satellites

Aims. We report the discovery of a planet with a high planet-to-star mass ratio in the microlensing event MOA-2009-BLG-387, which exhibited pronounced deviations over a 12-day interval, one of the longest for any planetary event. The host is an M dwarf, with a mass in the range 0.07 M < M host < 0.49 M at 90% confidence. The planet-star mass ratio q = 0.0132 ± 0.003 has been measured extremely well, so at the best-estimated host mass, the planet mass is m p = 2.6 Jupiter masses for the median host mass, M = 0.19 M . Methods. The host mass is determined from two "higher order" microlensing parameters. One of these, the angular Einstein radius θ E = 0.31 ± 0.03 mas has been accurately measured, but the other (the microlens parallax π E , which is due to the Earth's orbital motion) is highly degenerate with the orbital motion of the planet. We statistically resolve the degeneracy between Earth and planet orbital effects by imposing priors from a Galactic model that specifies the positions and velocities of lenses and sources and a Kepler model of orbits. Results. The 90% confidence intervals for the distance, semi-major axis, and period of the planet are 3.5 kpc < D L < 7.9 kpc, 1.1 AU < a < 2.7 AU, and 3.8 yr < P < 7.6 yr, respectively.

The published version of this article presented high-precision observations of the transiting extrasolar planetary system WASP-18, which is of particular interest because accurate transit timings over a number of years may provide empirical constraints on the tidal quality factor of the host stars of gas giant planets. We have since discovered that the times recorded in the FITS headers of our observations were offset from the true values. This information was used to generate the timestamps in the photometric observations presented and analyzed in the published article, which are therefore also offset by an unknown amount.The problem has been traced back to a software "bug" (or "feature") which meant that the computer clock used in the generation of the FITS headers was only synchronized to an atomic clock when the computer was booted. WASP-18 was observed at the end of the season, when the computer had been running continuously for several months, and so was strongly affected by this problem. The timestamps in the light curve of WASP-18 are uniformly shifted to roughly 85 s later than the true values, calculated by comparison to the orbital ephemeris given by Hellier et al. (2009). A more precise value of the shift will be calculable in the future when an improved orbital ephemeris becomes available.The measured physical properties of the WASP-18 system in the published article are not affected by this problem, as they depend only on the relative values of the timestamps. However, the orbital ephemeris is significantly affected and should not be used in future analyses. For the purposes of planning further observations, we recommend that the orbital ephemeris given by Hellier et al. (2009) should be used.