Related papers: Giant Planets
Over the past two years, the search for low-mass extrasolar planets has led to the detection of seven so-called 'hot Neptunes' or 'super-Earths' around Sun-like stars. These planets have masses 5-20 times larger than the Earth and are…
We present a broad suite of models of extrasolar giant planets (EGP's), ranging in mass from 0.3 to 15 Jupiter masses. The models predict luminosity (both reflected and emitted) as a function of age, mass, deuterium abundance and distance…
The detection of many extrasolar gas giants with high eccentricities indicates that dynamical instabilities in planetary systems are common. These instabilities can alter the orbits of gas giants as well as the orbits of terrestrial planets…
Understanding planetary habitability is one of the major challenges of the current scientific era, particularly given the discovery of a large and diverse terrestrial exoplanet population. Discerning the primary factors that contribute to…
In this paper we investigate the evolution of a pair of interacting planets - a Jupiter mass planet and a Super-Earth with the 5.5 Earth masses - orbiting a Solar type star and embedded in a gaseous protoplanetary disc. We focus on the…
The growing body of observational data on extrasolar planets and protoplanetary disks has stimulated intense research on planet formation and evolution in the past few years. The extremely diverse, sometimes unexpected physical and orbital…
Gas giant planets are differentially rotating magnetic objects that have strong and complex interactions with their environment. In our Solar system, they interact with their numerous moons while exoplanets with very short orbital periods…
We present a new numerical framework to model the formation and evolution of giant planets. The code is based on the further development of the stellar evolution toolkit Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA). The model…
We present the results of hydrodynamic simulations of the formation and subsequent orbital evolution of giant planets embedded in a circumbinary disc. We assume that a 20 earth masses core has migrated to the edge of the inner cavity formed…
In this lecture, we give a first introduction to neutron stars, based on fundamental physical principles. After outlining their amazing macroscopic properties, as obtained from observations, we infer the extreme conditions of matter in…
In the Solar System giant planets come in two flavours: 'gas giants' (Jupiter and Saturn) with massive gas envelopes and 'ice giants' (Uranus and Neptune) with much thinner envelopes around their cores. It is poorly understood how these two…
Comets, asteroids and moons that orbit stars and planets exterior to our solar system are prefixed with "exo". While the existence of these objects is certain, our understanding of their physical properties, composition, and diversity is…
Evidence of mutually inclined planetary orbits has been reported for giant planets these last years. Here we aim to study the impact of eccentric and inclined massive giant planets on the terrestrial planet formation process, and…
We present the first models of Saturn and Jupiter to couple their evolution to both a radiative-atmosphere grid and to high-pressure phase diagrams of hydrogen with helium. The purpose of these models is to quantify the evolutionary effects…
The search for habitable planets like Earth around other stars fulfils an ancient imperative to understand our origins and place in the cosmos. The past decade has seen the discovery of hundreds of planets, but nearly all are gas giants…
Context: More than 50 exoplanets have been found around giant stars, revealing different properties when compared to planets orbiting solar-type stars. In particular, they are Super-Jupiters and are not found orbiting interior to $\sim$ 0.5…
The dynamical features of the irregular satellites of the giant planets argue against an in-situ formation and are strongly suggestive of a capture origin. Since the last detailed investigations of their dynamics, the total number of…
The orbital distributions of currently observed extrasolar giant planets allow marginally stable orbits for hypothetical, terrestrial planets. In this paper, we propose that many of these systems may not have additional planets on these…
We study how close-in systems such as those detected by Kepler are affected by the dynamics of bodies in the outer system. We consider two scenarios: outer systems of giant planets potentially unstable to planet--planet scattering, and wide…
Straddling the traditional realms of the planets and the stars, objects below the edge of the main sequence have such unique properties, and are being discovered in such quantities, that one can rightly claim that a new field at the…