The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets⋆⋆⋆

We report the detection of three new extrasolar planets orbiting the solar type stars HD 85390, HD 90156and HD 103197with the HARPS spectrograph mounted on the ESO 3.6-m telescope at La Silla observatory. HD 85390has a planetary companion with a projected intermediate mass (42.0   M⊕) on a 788-day orbit (a= 1.52 AU) with an eccentricity of 0.41, for which there is no analog in the solar system. A drift in the data indicates the presence of another companion on a long-period orbit, which is however not covered by our measurements. HD 90156is orbited by a warm Neptune analog with a minimum mass of 17.98 M⊕(1.05  $M_{\neptune}$), a period of 49.8 days (a= 0.25 AU), and an eccentricity of 0.31. HD 103197has an intermediate-mass planet on a circular orbit (P= 47.8 d, Msini= 31.2   M⊕). We discuss the formation of planets of intermediate mass (~30–100 M⊕), which should be rare inside a few AU according to core accretion formation models.