Related papers: Radiative Thrusters on Close-in Extrasolar Planets
In most extrasolar planetary systems, the present orbits of known giant planets admit the existence of stable terrestrial planets. Those same giant planets, however, have typically eccentric orbits that hint at violent early dynamics less…
We show that a consistent fit to observed secondary eclipse data for several strongly irradiated transiting planets demands a temperature inversion (stratosphere) at altitude. Such a thermal inversion significantly influences the…
Robust atmospheric and radiative transfer modeling will be required to properly interpret reflected light and thermal emission spectra of terrestrial exoplanets. This will help break observational degeneracies between the numerous…
The capture of compact bodies by black holes in galactic nuclei is an important prospective source for low frequency gravitational wave detectors, such as the planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. This paper calculates, using a…
We investigate the effects of radiative energy transfer on a series of nested-grid, high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of gas and particle dynamics in the vicinity of an Earth-mass planetary embryo. We include heating due to the…
The radius of an exoplanet may be affected by various factors, including irradiation, planet mass and heavy element content. A significant number of transiting exoplanets have now been discovered for which the mass, radius, semi-major axis,…
The discovery of transiting extrasolar planets has enabled us a number of interesting stduies. Transit photometry reveals the radius and the orbital inclination of transiting planets, and thereby we can learn the true mass and the density…
Planetary rotation rates and obliquities provide information regarding the history of planet formation, but have not yet been measured for evolved extrasolar planets. Here we investigate the theoretical and observational perspective of the…
Previous studies have shown that planets that rotate retrograde (backwards with respect to their orbital motion) generally experience less severe obliquity variations than those that rotate prograde (the same direction as their orbital…
For extrasolar planets with orbital periods, P>10 days, radial velocity surveys find non-circular orbital eccentricities are common, <e>~0.3. Future surveys for extrasolar planets using the transit technique will also have sensitivity to…
Because planets are not expected to be able to form close to stars due to the high temperatures, it has been suggested that the observed close orbiting ($\sim 0.05$ AU) large mass planets ($\sim M_J$) might be mirror worlds -- planets…
We develop an idealized dynamical model to predict the typical properties of outer extrasolar planetary systems, at radii beyond 5 AU. Our hypothesis is that dynamical evolution in outer planetary systems is controlled by a combination of…
Rotation and orbital eccentricity both strongly influence planetary climate. Eccentricities can often be measured for exoplanets, but rotation rates are currently difficult or impossible to constrain. Here we examine how the combined…
Motivated by the large number of compact extrasolar planetary systems discovered by the Kepler Mission, this paper considers perturbations due to possible additional outer planets. The discovered compact systems sometimes contain multiple…
A small percentage of normal stars harbor giant planets that orbit within a few tenths of an astronomical unit. At such distances the potential exists for significant tidal and magnetic field interaction resulting in energy dissipation that…
Gravitational scattering between massive planets has been invoked to explain the eccentricity distribution of extrasolar planets. For scattering to occur, the planets must either form in -- or migrate into -- an unstable configuration. In…
We investigate the effects on extrasolar giant planets [EGPs] of intense irradiation by their parent stars, describing the issues involved in treating the model atmosphere problem correctly. We treat the radiative transfer in detail,…
Circumbinary planets whose orbits become unstable may be ejected, accreted, or even captured by one of the stars. We quantify the relative rates of these channels, for a binary of secondary star's mass fraction 0.1 with an orbit of 1AU. The…
Stars interact with their planets through gravitation, radiation, and magnetic fields. I shall focus on the interactions between late-type stars with an outer convection zone and close-in planets, i.e., with an orbital semimajor axis…
(Abridged) The propagation of ionizing radiation through model atmospheres of terrestrial-like exoplanets is studied for a large range of column densities and incident photon energies using a Monte Carlo code we have developed to treat…