Related papers: Compositions and origins of outer planet systems: …
All the four giant planets in our Solar System have rings, but their characteristics are very different. The rings consist of a number of small particles, although individual particles have not been directly imaged. Near the central planet,…
Many of the known extrasolar planets are ``hot Jupiters,'' giant planets with orbital periods of just a few days. We use the observed distribution of hot Jupiters to constrain the location of its inner edge in the mass--period diagram. If…
We use a hybrid numerical approach to simulate the formation of the Moon from an impact-generated disk, consisting of a fluid model for the disk inside the Roche limit and an N-body code to describe accretion outside the Roche limit. As the…
Collisional fragmentation is shown to not be a barrier to rocky planet formation at small distances from the host star. Simple analytic arguments demonstrate that rocky planet formation via collisions of homogeneous gravity-dominated bodies…
The exoplanet mass radius diagram reveals that super Earths display a wide range of radii, and therefore mean densities, at a given mass. Using planet population synthesis models, we explore the key physical factors that shape this…
We study the masses and radii of 65 exoplanets smaller than 4 Earth radii with orbital periods shorter than 100 days. We calculate the weighted mean densities of planets in bins of 0.5 Earth radii and identify a density maximum of 7.6 g/cc…
In this paper we investigate the formation of Uranus and Neptune, according to the core-nucleated accretion model, considering formation locations ranging from 12 to 30 AU from the Sun, and with various disk solid-surface densities and core…
Divergent migration of planets within a viscous circumstellar disk can engender resonance crossings and dramatic excitation of orbital eccentricities. We provide quantitative criteria for the viability of this mechanism. For the orbits of…
Many exoplanets have now been detected in orbits with ultra-short periods, very close to the Roche limit. Building upon our previous work, we study the possibility that mass loss through Roche lobe overflow (RLO) may affect the evolution of…
Extrasolar planets found with radial velocity surveys have masses ranging from several Earth to several Jupiter masses. While mass accretion onto protoplanetary cores in weak-line T-Tauri disks may eventually be quenched by a global…
Saturns F-ring is a unique, narrow ring that lies (radially) close to the tidally disruptive Roche limit of water ice for Saturn. Significant work has been done that shows it to be one of the most dynamic places in the Solar System.…
A rapidly growing body of observational results suggests that planet formation takes place preferentially at high metallicity. In the core accretion model of planet formation this is expected because heavy elements are needed to form the…
Context: Pebble accretion is expected to be the dominant process for the formation of massive solid planets, such as the cores of giant planets and super-Earths. So, far, this process has been studied under the assumption that dust…
Many of the known extrasolar planets are ``hot Jupiters,'' giant planets with orbital periods of just a few days. We use the observed distribution of hot Jupiters to constrain the location of the ``inner edge'' and planet migration theory.…
The observed population of Hot Jupiters displays a stunning variety of physical properties, including a wide range of densities and core sizes for a given planetary mass. Motivated by the observational sample, this paper studies the…
Our knowledge of white dwarf planetary systems predominately arises from the region within a few Solar radii of the white dwarfs, where minor planets break up, form rings and discs, and accrete onto the star. The entry location, angle and…
We analyze the nonlinear, two-dimensional response of a gaseous, viscous protoplanetary disk to the presence of a planet of one Jupiter mass (1 M_J) and greater that orbits a 1 solar mass star by using the ZEUS hydrodynamics code with high…
Pebble accretion is the leading theory for the formation of exoplanets more massive than the Earth. Many parameters influence planet growth in the pebble accretion models. In this paper, we study the influence of pebble fragmentation…
Recent observations by the {\it Kepler} space telescope have led to the discovery of more than 4000 exoplanet candidates consisting of many systems with Earth- to Neptune-sized objects that reside well inside the orbit of Mercury, around…
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…