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Recently, gas giant planets in nearly circular orbits with large semimajor axes ($a \sim$ 30--1000AU) have been detected by direct imaging. We have investigated orbital evolution in a formation scenario for such planets, based on core…
The Sun was an order of magnitude more luminous during the first few hundred thousand years of its existence, due in part to the gravitational energy released by material accreting from the Solar nebula. If Jupiter was already near its…
Three-dimensional numerical simulations show that large-scale latent heating resulting from condensation of water vapor can produce multiple zonal jets similar to those on the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and ice giants (Uranus and…
The eddy fluxes of angular momentum in Jupiter's upper troposphere are known to converge in prograde jets and diverge in retrograde jets. Away from the equator, this implies convergence of the Eulerian mean meridional flow in zones…
Through the process of thermal ionization, intense stellar irradiation renders Hot Jupiter atmospheres electrically conductive. Simultaneously, lateral variability in the irradiation drives the global circulation with peak wind speeds of…
The observed zonal winds at Jupiter's cloud tops have been shown to be closely linked to the asymmetric part of the planet's measured gravity field. However, other measurements suggest that in some latitudinal regions the flow below the…
We observed Jupiter at wavelengths near 2 cm with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in February 2015. These frequencies are mostly sensitive to variations in ammonia abundance and probe between ~0.5-2.0 bars of pressure in Jupiter's…
Giant planets are thought to have cores in their deep interiors, and the division into a heavy-element core and hydrogen-helium envelope is applied in both formation and structure models. We show that the primordial internal structure…
The origin of Jupiter-mass planets with orbital periods of only a few days is still uncertain. It is widely believed that these planets formed near the water-ice line of the protoplanetary disk, and subsequently migrated into much smaller…
We study the spatial and temporal variability in Jupiter's atmosphere by comparing longitude-resolved brightness temperature maps from the Very Large Array (VLA) radio observatory and NASA's Juno spacecraft Microwave Radiometer (MWR) taken…
Hot Jupiters receive intense irradiation from their stellar hosts. The resulting extreme environments in their atmospheres allow us to study the conditions that drive planetary atmospheric dynamics, e.g., global-scale winds. General…
Isolated planetary-mass objects share their mass range with planets but do not orbit a star. They lack the necessary mass to support fusion in their cores and thermally radiate their heat from formation as they cool, primarily at infrared…
The Cassini and Juno probes have revealed large coherent cyclonic vortices in the polar regions of Saturn and Jupiter, a dramatic contrast from the east-west banded jet structure seen at lower latitudes. Debate has centered on whether the…
Hot Jupiters receive intense incident stellar light on their daysides, which drives vigorous atmospheric circulation that attempts to erase their large dayside-to-nightside flux contrasts. Propagating waves and instabilities in hot Jupiter…
The zonal winds on the surfaces of giant planets vary with latitude. Jupiter and Saturn, for example, have several bands of alternating eastward (prograde) and westward (retrograde) jets relative to the angular velocity of their global…
Technique: We present a method to determine the pressure at which significant cloud opacity is present between 2 and 6 bars on Jupiter. We use: a) the strength of a Fraunhofer absorption line in a zone to determine the ratio of reflected…
Numerical simulations show that the migration of growing planetary cores may be dominated by turbulent fluctuations in the protoplanetary disk, rather than by any mean property of the flow. We quantify the impact of this stochastic core…
We investigate the effects of atmospheric circulation on the chemistry of the hot Jupiter HD 209458b. We use a simplified dynamical model and a robust chemical network, as opposed to previous studies which have used a three dimensional…
The recent gravity field measurements of Jupiter (Juno) and Saturn (Cassini) confirm the existence of deep zonal flows reaching to a depth of 5\% and 15\% of the respective radius. Relating the zonal wind induced density perturbations to…
We introduce a model for the orbital period modulation in systems with close-by giant planets based on a spin-orbit coupling that transfers angular momentum from the orbit to the rotation of the planet and viceversa. The coupling is…