A planetary-mass companion to the K0 giant HD 17092

We report the discovery of a substellar-mass companion to the K0 giant HD 17092 with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. In the absence of any correlation of the observed 360 day periodicity with the standard indicators of stellar activity, the observed radial velocity variations are most plausibly explained in terms of a Keplerian motion of a planetary-mass body around the star. As the estimated stellar mass is 2.3 M-circle dot, the minimum mass of the planet is 4.6 M-J. The planet's orbit is characterized by a mild eccentricity of e 0: 17 and a semimajor axis of 1.3 AU. This is the tenth published detection of a planetary companion around a red giant star. Such discoveries add to our understanding of planet formation around intermediate-mass stars, and they provide dynamical information on the evolution of planetary systems around post-main-sequence stars.