They concluded that a giant planet, at least half the mass of Jupiter, is orbiting 51 Pegasi and pulling it to and fro. But Gray, who has been observing 51 Pegasi intermittently since 1989, was not convinced. The planet hunters charge that Gray is the one chasing phantoms. Marcy also assails the logic of Gray's interpretation. Moreover, the kind of oscillation Gray proposes is unlike any yet seen or predicted.
Emotion is clearly on the pro-planet side.
Although Gray is only questioning the existence of one of the extrasolar planets, his paper has created the perception that he is a scientific Scrooge, snatching away a long-sought discovery. Which side the science favors is not as obvious. Nobody takes Gray's paper lightly. She also faults his paper for omitting error bars and observation times, which would help other researchers assess his work. Gordon Walker of the University of British Columbia, who wrote a commentary on Gray's report in Nature , agrees that it is preliminary.