Editing Exoplanet (section)

=== Discredited claims ===
Claims of exoplanet detections have been made since the nineteenth century. Some of the earliest involve the [[binary star]] [[70 Ophiuchi]]. In 1855, [[William Stephen Jacob]] at the [[East India Company]]'s [[Madras Observatory]] reported that orbital anomalies made it "highly probable" that there was a "planetary body" in this system.<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Jacob, W. S.|date=1855|title=On Certain Anomalies presented by the Binary Star 70 Ophiuchi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pQsAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA228|journal=[[Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]]|volume=15 |issue=9|pages=228–230|bibcode=1855MNRAS..15..228J |doi=10.1093/mnras/15.9.228|doi-access=free}}</ref> In the 1890s, [[Thomas Jefferson Jackson See|Thomas J. J. See]] of the [[University of Chicago]] and the [[United States Naval Observatory]] stated that the orbital anomalies proved the existence of a dark body in the 70&nbsp;Ophiuchi system with a 36-year [[orbital period|period]] around one of the stars.<ref>{{cite journal |last=See |first=T. J. J. |author-link=Thomas Jefferson Jackson See |year=1896 |title=Researches on the orbit of 70 Ophiuchi, and on a periodic perturbation in the motion of the system arising from the action of an unseen body |journal=The Astronomical Journal |volume=16 |pages=17–23 |doi=10.1086/102368 |bibcode=1896AJ.....16...17S}}</ref> However, [[Forest Ray Moulton]] published a paper proving that a three-body system with those orbital parameters would be highly unstable.<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Sherrill, T. J.|date=1999|journal=[[Journal for the History of Astronomy]]|title=A Career of Controversy: The Anomaly of T. J. J. See|url=http://www.shpltd.co.uk/jha.pdf|volume=30 |issue=98 |pages=25–50|bibcode=1999JHA....30...25S |doi=10.1177/002182869903000102|s2cid=117727302}}</ref>

Multiple claims have been made that [[61 Cygni]] might have a planetary system. [[Kaj Aage Gunnar Strand|Kaj Strand]] of the Sproul Observatory in 1942 observed tiny but systematic variations in the orbital motions of 61 Cygni A and B, suggesting that a third body of about 16 Jupiter masses must be orbiting 61 Cygni A.<ref>{{cite journal
 | last=Strand | first=K. Aa.
 | title=61 Cygni as a Triple System
 | journal=Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
 | date=1943 | volume=55 | issue=322 | pages=29–32
 | bibcode=1943PASP...55...29S
 | doi=10.1086/125484 | doi-access=free}}</ref> Multiple further claims were made, but more recent observations have yet to find confirmation. More information at [[61 Cygni#Claims_of_a_planetary_system| 61 Cygni:Claims of a planetary system]].  

Around the same time that 61 Cygni was being investigated, similar claims about the presence of exoplanets were made about Lalande 21185: [[Lalande_21185#Past_claims_of_planets]].

During the 1950s and 1960s, [[Peter van de Kamp]] of [[Swarthmore College]] made another prominent series of detection claims, this time for planets orbiting [[Barnard's Star]].<ref>{{Cite journal|author=van de Kamp, P. |date=1969|title=Alternate dynamical analysis of Barnard's star|journal=[[Astronomical Journal]]|volume=74 |pages=757–759|doi=10.1086/110852|bibcode=1969AJ.....74..757V}}</ref> Astronomers now generally regard all early reports of detection as erroneous.<ref name="boss_book p31">{{Cite book|last = Boss|first = Alan|title = The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets|publisher = Basic Books|date = 2009|pages = 31–32|isbn = 978-0-465-00936-7}}</ref>

In 1991, [[Andrew Lyne]], [[Matthew Bailes|M. Bailes]] and S. L. Shemar claimed to have discovered a [[pulsar planet]] in orbit around [[PSR 1829-10]], using [[pulsar timing]] variations.<ref name="LyneBailes">{{Cite journal | last1 = Bailes | first1 = M. | last2 = Lyne | first2 = A. G. | author-link2 = Andrew Lyne| last3 = Shemar | first3 = S. L. | doi = 10.1038/352311a0 |bibcode=1991Natur.352..311B| title = A planet orbiting the neutron star PSR1829–10 | journal = Nature | volume = 352 | issue = 6333 | pages = 311–313 | year = 1991 | s2cid = 4339517 }}</ref> The claim briefly received intense attention, but Lyne and his team soon retracted it.<ref name="LyneRetraction">{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1038/355213b0| title = No planet orbiting PS R1829–10| journal = Nature| volume = 355| issue = 6357| page = 213| year = 1992| last1 = Lyne | first1 = A. G.| last2 = Bailes | first2 = M. | bibcode = 1992Natur.355..213L| s2cid = 40526307| doi-access = free}}</ref>