Related papers: Expected Planets in Globular Clusters
Although globular clusters are generally chemically homogeneous, substantial abundance variations are sometimes seen even among unevolved main sequence stars, especially for the CNO group of elements. Multi-object intermediate-dispersion…
During the late stage of planet formation when Mars-size cores appear, interactions among planetary cores can excite their orbital eccentricities, speed their merges and thus sculpture the final architecture of planet systems. This series…
At high metallicity, a majority of massive stars have at least one close stellar companion. The evolution of such binaries is subject to strong interaction processes, heavily impacting the characteristics of their life-ending supernova and…
Mergers of gas-rich galaxies lead to gravitationally driven increases in gas pressure that can trigger intense bursts of star and cluster formation. Although star formation itself is clustered, most newborn stellar aggregates are unbound…
We present a chemical composition analysis of 36 giant stars in mildly metal-poor globular cluster M5. In comparing the M5 results to those obtained in M4, a cluster previously considered to be a ``twin'' in age, metallicity and chemical…
Jupiter played an important role in determining the structure and configuration of the Solar System. Whereas hot-Jupiter type exoplanets preferentially form around metal-rich stars, the conditions required for the formation of planets with…
In the local Universe, globular clusters (GCs) with metallicities $[{\rm Fe}/{\rm H}]<-2.5$ are extremely rare. In this Letter, the close connection between GC formation and galaxy evolution is used to show that this GC metallicity `floor'…
The global properties of all known Galactic globular clusters are examined. The relationship between the luminosities and the metallicities of Galactic globular clusters is found to be complex. Among luminous clusters there is a correlation…
The well-known correlation between stellar metallicity and planet occurrence is strongest for giant planets, but weaker for smaller planets, suggesting that detailed elemental patterns beyond [Fe/H] may be relevant. Using abundances from…
Recent ground and space-based observations show that stars with multiple planets are common in the galaxy. Most of these observational methods are biased toward detecting large planets near to their host stars. Because of these…
Small planets, 1-4x the size of Earth, are extremely common around Sun-like stars, and surprisingly so, as they are missing in our solar system. Recent detections have yielded enough information about this class of exoplanets to begin…
Most stars form in dense stellar environments. It is speculated that some dense star clusters may host intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), which may have formed from runaway collisions between high-mass stars, or from the mergers of less…
A catalog of Galactic globular clusters has been compiled and used to analyze relations between the chemical and kinematic parameters of the clusters. The catalog contains positions, distances, luminosities, metallicites, and…
The discovery of planets around massive stars is important for understanding how planet formation and evolution is conditioned by different stellar environments. However, current planetary search surveys have failed to detect planets around…
We investigate the distributions of the orbital period ratios of adjacent planets in high multiplicity \kepler\ systems (four or more planets) and low multiplicity systems (two planets). Modeling the low multiplicity sample as essentially…
The degree of influence that environment and mass have on the stellar populations of early-type galaxies is uncertain. In this paper we present the results of a spectroscopic analysis of the stellar populations of early-type galaxies aimed…
Typical globular clusters (GCs - young and old) host stellar populations with little or no star-to-star variations in heavy elements (e.g., Ca, Fe) nor in age. Nuclear star clusters (NSCs), on the other hand, host complex stellar…
We explore the impact of outer stellar companions on the occurrence rate of giant planets detected with radial velocities. We searched for stellar and planetary companions to a volume-limited sample of solar-type stars within 25 pc. Using…
We present an analysis of the metallicity distribution functions of fields projected along the minor axis for a sample of inclined spiral galaxies in order to search for evidence of the presence of multiple stellar populations. In all…
Kepler planets (including super-Earths and sub-Neptunes, from 1 to 4 Earth radii) are likely formed before the gaseous proto-planetary disks have dissipated, as are the Jovian planets. If the metal content in these disks resembles that in…