Related papers: Implications of the TTV-Detection of Close-In Terr…
It has been long proposed that, if all the terrestrial planets form within a tiny ring of solid material at around 1 AU, the concentrated mass-distance distribution of the current system can be reproduced. Recent planetesimal formation…
The widespread prevalence of close-in, nearly coplanar super-Earth- and sub-Neptune-sized planets in multiple-planet systems was one of the most surprising results from the Kepler mission. By studying a uniform sample of Kepler "multis"…
Our understanding of the process of terrestrial planet formation has grown markedly over the past 20 years, yet key questions remain. This review begins by first addressing the critical, earliest stage of dust coagulation and concentration.…
Recent results have shown that many of the known extrasolar planetary systems contain regions which are stable for both Earth-mass and Saturn-mass planets. Here we simulate the formation of terrestrial planets in four planetary systems --…
One of the most surprising discoveries of extrasolar planets is the detection of planets in moderately close binary star systems. The Jovian-type planets in the two binaries of Gamma Cephei and GJ 86 have brought to the forefront questions…
In recent years a paradigm shift has occurred in exoplanet science, wherein low-mass stars are increasingly viewed as a foundational pillar of the search for potentially habitable worlds in the solar neighborhood. However, the formation…
A binary star system is the most common result of the star formation process, and binary companions can disrupt both the formation of terrestrial planets and their long term prospects for stability. We present results from a large set of…
There is evidence for the existence of massive planets at orbital radii of several hundred AU from their parent stars where the timescale for planet formation by core accretion is longer than the disc lifetime. These planets could have…
Giant planets in circumstellar disks can migrate inward from their initial (formation) positions. Radial migration is caused by inward torques between the planet and the disk; by outward torques between the planet and the spinning star; and…
Recent surveys have revealed a lack of close-in planets around evolved stars more massive than 1.2 Msun. Such planets are common around solar-mass stars. We have calculated the orbital evolution of planets around stars with a range of…
We consider a dynamical shake-up model to explain the low mass of Mars and the lack of planets in the asteroid belt. In our scenario, a secular resonance with Jupiter sweeps through the inner solar system as the solar nebula depletes,…
Several observational works have shown the existence of Jupiter-mass planets covering a wide range of semi-major axes around Sun-like stars. We aim to analyse the planetary formation processes around Sun-like stars that host a Jupiter-mass…
From wispy gas giants on the verge of disruption to tiny rocky bodies already falling apart, short-period exoplanets pose a severe puzzle to theories of planet formation and orbital evolution. By far most of the planets known beyond the…
We investigate the dynamical evolution of the terrestrial planets during the planetesimal-driven migration of the giant planets. A basic assumption of this work is that giant planet migration occurred after the completion of terrestrial…
In this work we pose the possibility that, at an early stage, the migration of a proto--giant planet caused by the presence of a gaseous circumstellar disk could explain the continuous feeding of small bodies into its orbit. Particularly,…
A major outstanding question regarding the formation of planetary systems is whether wide-orbit giant planets form differently than close-in giant planets. We aim to establish constraints on two key parameters that are relevant for…
Planets orbiting a planetesimal circumstellar disc can migrate inward from their initial positions because of dynamical friction between planets and planetesimals. The migration rate depends on the disc mass and on its time evolution.…
The discovery of close orbiting extrasolar giant planets led to extensive studies of disk planet interactions and the forms of migration that can result as a means of accounting for their location. Early work established the type I and type…
A transiting planet exhibits sinusoidal transit-time-variations (TTVs) if perturbed by a companion near a mean-motion-resonance (MMR). We search for sinusoidal TTVs in more than 2600 Kepler candidates, using the publicly available Kepler…
Modern terrestrial planet formation models are highly successful at consistently generating planets with masses and orbits analogous to those of Earth and Venus. In stark contrast to classic theoretical predictions and inferred demographics…