477 research outputs found
The Architectural Design Rules of Solar Systems based on the New Perspective
On the basis of the Lunar Laser Ranging Data released by NASA on the Silver
Jubilee Celebration of Man Landing on Moon on 21st July 1969-1994, theoretical
formulation of Earth-Moon tidal interaction was carried out and Planetary
Satellite Dynamics was established. It was found that this mathematical
analysis could as well be applied to Star and Planets system and since every
star could potentially contain an extra-solar system, hence we have a large
ensemble of exoplanets to test our new perspective on the birth and evolution
of solar systems. Till date 403 exoplanets have been discovered in 390
extra-solar systems. I have taken 12 single planet systems, 4 Brown Dwarf -
Star systems and 2 Brown Dwarf pairs. Following architectural design rules are
corroborated through this study of exoplanets. All planets are born at inner
Clarke Orbit what we refer to as inner geo-synchronous orbit in case of
Earth-Moon System. By any perturbative force such as cosmic particles or
radiation pressure, the planet gets tipped long of aG1 or short of aG1. Here
aG1 is inner Clarke Orbit. The exoplanet can either be launched on death spiral
as CLOSE HOT JUPITERS or can be launched on an expanding spiral path as the
planets in our Solar System are. It was also found that if the exo-planet are
significant fraction of the host star then those exo-planets rapidly migrate
from aG1 to aG2 and have very short Time Constant of Evolution as Brown Dwarfs
have. This vindicates our basic premise that planets are always born at inner
Clarke Orbit. This study vindicates the design rules which had been postulated
at 35th COSPAR Scientific Assembly in 2004 at Paris, France, under the title
,New Perspective on the Birth & Evolution of Solar Systems.Comment: This paper has been reported to Earth,Moon and Planets Journal as
MOON-S-09-0007
Transit Photometry as an Exoplanet Discovery Method
Photometry with the transit method has arguably been the most successful
exoplanet discovery method to date. A short overview about the rise of that
method to its present status is given. The method's strength is the rich set of
parameters that can be obtained from transiting planets, in particular in
combination with radial velocity observations; the basic principles of these
parameters are given. The method has however also drawbacks, which are the low
probability that transits appear in randomly oriented planet systems, and the
presence of astrophysical phenomena that may mimic transits and give rise to
false detection positives. In the second part we outline the main factors that
determine the design of transit surveys, such as the size of the survey sample,
the temporal coverage, the detection precision, the sample brightness and the
methods to extract transit events from observed light curves. Lastly, an
overview over past, current and future transit surveys is given. For these
surveys we indicate their basic instrument configuration and their planet
catch, including the ranges of planet sizes and stellar magnitudes that were
encountered. Current and future transit detection experiments concentrate
primarily on bright or special targets, and we expect that the transit method
remains a principal driver of exoplanet science, through new discoveries to be
made and through the development of new generations of instruments.Comment: Review chapte
Planet Formation by Coagulation: A Focus on Uranus and Neptune
Planets form in the circumstellar disks of young stars. We review the basic
physical processes by which solid bodies accrete each other and alter each
others' random velocities, and we provide order-of-magnitude derivations for
the rates of these processes. We discuss and exercise the two-groups
approximation, a simple yet powerful technique for solving the evolution
equations for protoplanet growth. We describe orderly, runaway, neutral, and
oligarchic growth. We also delineate the conditions under which each occurs. We
refute a popular misconception by showing that the outer planets formed quickly
by accreting small bodies. Then we address the final stages of planet
formation. Oligarchy ends when the surface density of the oligarchs becomes
comparable to that of the small bodies. Dynamical friction is no longer able to
balance viscous stirring and the oligarchs' random velocities increase. In the
inner-planet system, oligarchs collide and coalesce. In the outer-planet
system, some of the oligarchs are ejected. In both the inner- and outer-planet
systems, this stage ends once the number of big bodies has been reduced to the
point that their mutual interactions no longer produce large-scale chaos.
Subsequently, dynamical friction by the residual small bodies circularizes and
flattens their orbits. The final stage of planet formation involves the clean
up of the residual small bodies. Clean up has been poorly explored.Comment: to appear in ARA&A (2004), 51 pages, 3 figure
Alignment of the stellar spin with the orbits of a three-planet system
The Sun’s equator and the planets’ orbital planes are nearly aligned, which is presumably a consequence of their formation from a single spinning gaseous disk. For exoplanetary systems this well-aligned configuration is not guaranteed: dynamical interactions may tilt planetary orbits, or stars may be misaligned with the protoplanetary disk through chaotic accretion1 , magnetic interactions[superscript 2] or torques from neighbouring stars. Indeed, isolated ‘hot Jupiters’ are often misaligned and even orbiting retrograde[superscript 3, 4]. Here we report an analysis of transits of planets over starspots[superscript 5, 6, 7] on the Sun-like star Kepler-30 (ref. 8), and show that the orbits of its three planets are aligned with the stellar equator. Furthermore, the orbits are aligned with one another to within a few degrees. This configuration is similar to that of our Solar System, and contrasts with the isolated hot Jupiters. The orderly alignment seen in the Kepler-30 system suggests that high obliquities are confined to systems that experienced disruptive dynamical interactions. Should this be corroborated by observations of other coplanar multi-planet systems, then star–disk misalignments would be ruled out as the explanation for the high obliquities of hot Jupiters, and dynamical interactions would be implicated as the origin of hot Jupiters.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Science MissionDirectorate
In the Shadow of the Transiting Disk: Imaging epsilon Aurigae in Eclipse
Eclipses of the single-line spectroscopic binary star, epsilon Aurigae,
provide an opportunity to study the poorly-defined companion. We used the MIRC
beam combiner on the CHARA array to create interferometric images during
eclipse ingress. Our results demonstrate that the eclipsing body is a dark disk
that is opaque and tilted, and therefore exclude alternative models for the
system. These data constrain the geometry and masses of the components,
providing evidence that the F-star is not a massive supergiant star.Comment: As submitted to Nature. Published in Nature April 8, 2010
A pre-Caloris synchronous rotation for Mercury
The planet Mercury is locked in a spin-orbit resonance where it rotates three
times about its spin axis for every two orbits about the Sun. The current
explanation for this unique state assumes that the initial rotation of this
planet was prograde and rapid, and that tidal torques decelerated the planetary
spin to this resonance. When core-mantle boundary friction is accounted for,
capture into the 3/2 resonance occurs with a 26% probability, but the most
probable outcome is capture into one of the higher-order resonances. Here we
show that if the initial rotation of Mercury were retrograde, this planet would
be captured into synchronous rotation with a 68% probability. Strong spatial
variations of the impact cratering rate would have existed at this time, and
these are shown to be consistent with the distribution of pre-Calorian impact
basins observed by Mariner 10 and MESSENGER. Escape from this highly stable
resonance is made possible by the momentum imparted by large basin-forming
impact events, and capture into the 3/2 resonance occurs subsequently under
favourable conditions.Comment: Nature Geosci., 201
Two Earth-sized planets orbiting Kepler-20
Since the discovery of the first extrasolar giant planets around Sun-like
stars, evolving observational capabilities have brought us closer to the
detection of true Earth analogues. The size of an exoplanet can be determined
when it periodically passes in front of (transits) its parent star, causing a
decrease in starlight proportional to its radius. The smallest exoplanet
hitherto discovered has a radius 1.42 times that of the Earth's radius (R
Earth), and hence has 2.9 times its volume. Here we report the discovery of two
planets, one Earth-sized (1.03R Earth) and the other smaller than the Earth
(0.87R Earth), orbiting the star Kepler-20, which is already known to host
three other, larger, transiting planets. The gravitational pull of the new
planets on the parent star is too small to measure with current
instrumentation. We apply a statistical method to show that the likelihood of
the planetary interpretation of the transit signals is more than three orders
of magnitude larger than that of the alternative hypothesis that the signals
result from an eclipsing binary star. Theoretical considerations imply that
these planets are rocky, with a composition of iron and silicate. The outer
planet could have developed a thick water vapour atmosphere.Comment: Letter to Nature; Received 8 November; accepted 13 December 2011;
Published online 20 December 201
Comparison of Newtonian and Special-Relativistic Trajectories with the General-Relativistic Trajectory for a Low-Speed Weak-Gravity System
We show, contrary to expectation, that the trajectory predicted by general-relativistic mechanics for a low-speed weak-gravity system is not always well-approximated by the trajectories predicted by special-relativistic and Newtonian mechanics for the same parameters and initial conditions. If the system is dissipative, the breakdown of agreement occurs for chaotic trajectories only. If the system is non-dissipative, the breakdown of agreement occurs for chaotic trajectories and non-chaotic trajectories. The agreement breaks down slowly for non-chaotic trajectories but rapidly for chaotic trajectories. When the predictions are different, general-relativistic mechanics must therefore be used, instead of special-relativistic mechanics (Newtonian mechanics), to correctly study the dynamics of a weak-gravity system (a low-speed weak-gravity system)
Opening a new window to other worlds with spectropolarimetry
A high level of diversity has already been observed among the planets of our
own Solar System. As such, one expects extrasolar planets to present a wide
range of distinctive features, therefore the characterisation of Earth- and
super Earth-like planets is becoming of key importance in scientific research.
The SEARCH (Spectropolarimetric Exoplanet AtmospheRe CHaracerisation) mission
proposal of this paper represents one possible approach to realising these
objectives. The mission goals of SEARCH include the detailed characterisation
of a wide variety of exoplanets, ranging from terrestrial planets to gas
giants. More specifically, SEARCH will determine atmospheric properties such as
cloud coverage, surface pressure and atmospheric composition, and may also be
capable of identifying basic surface features. To resolve a planet with a semi
major axis of down to 1.4AU and 30pc distant SEARCH will have a mirror system
consisting of two segments, with elliptical rim, cut out of a parabolic mirror.
This will yield an effective diameter of 9 meters along one axis. A phase mask
coronagraph along with an integral spectrograph will be used to overcome the
contrast ratio of star to planet light. Such a mission would provide invaluable
data on the diversity present in extrasolar planetary systems and much more
could be learned from the similarities and differences compared to our own
Solar System. This would allow our theories of planetary formation, atmospheric
accretion and evolution to be tested, and our understanding of regions such as
the outer limit of the Habitable Zone to be further improved.Comment: 23 pages, accepted for publication in Experimental Astronom
Transit Timing and Duration Variations for the Discovery and Characterization of Exoplanets
Transiting exoplanets in multi-planet systems have non-Keplerian orbits which
can cause the times and durations of transits to vary. The theory and
observations of transit timing variations (TTV) and transit duration variations
(TDV) are reviewed. Since the last review, the Kepler spacecraft has detected
several hundred perturbed planets. In a few cases, these data have been used to
discover additional planets, similar to the historical discovery of Neptune in
our own Solar System. However, the more impactful aspect of TTV and TDV studies
has been characterization of planetary systems in which multiple planets
transit. After addressing the equations of motion and parameter scalings, the
main dynamical mechanisms for TTV and TDV are described, with citations to the
observational literature for real examples. We describe parameter constraints,
particularly the origin of the mass/eccentricity degeneracy and how it is
overcome by the high-frequency component of the signal. On the observational
side, derivation of timing precision and introduction to the timing diagram are
given. Science results are reviewed, with an emphasis on mass measurements of
transiting sub-Neptunes and super-Earths, from which bulk compositions may be
inferred.Comment: Revised version. Invited review submitted to 'Handbook of
Exoplanets,' Exoplanet Discovery Methods section, Springer Reference Works,
Juan Antonio Belmonte and Hans Deeg, Eds. TeX and figures may be found at
https://github.com/ericagol/TTV_revie
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