Related papers: A Metallicity Recipe for Rocky Planets
It is generally accepted that silicate-metal (`rocky') planet formation relies on coagulation from a mixture of sub-Mars sized planetary embryos and (smaller) planetesimals that dynamically emerge from the evolving circum-solar disc in the…
Core segregation and atmosphere formation are two of the major processes that redistribute the volatile elements-hydrogen (H), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and sulfur (S)-in and around rocky planets during their formation. The volatile…
We investigate how the statistical distribution of extrasolar planets may be combined with knowledge of the host stars' metallicity to yield constraints on the migration histories of gas giant planets. At any radius, planets that barely…
Uranus and Neptune are ice giants with $\sim$ 15% atmospheres by mass, placing them in an intermediate category between rocky planets and gas giants. These atmospheres are too massive to have been primarily outgassed, yet they never…
A large fraction of giant planets have gaseous envelopes that are limited to about 10 % of their total mass budget. Such planets are present in the Solar System (Uranus, Neptune) and are frequently observed in short periods around other…
Studies of transiting extra-solar planets are of key importance for understanding the nature of planets outside our Solar System, because their densities can be determined, constraining of what the planets are made of. Using the data…
Many exoplanets have been discovered with radii of 1-4 Earth radii, between that of Earth and Neptune. A number of these are known to have densities consistent with solid compositions, while others are "sub-Neptunes" likely to have…
According to the core-accretion scenario, planets form in protostellar disks through the condensation of dust, coagulation of planetesimals, and emergence of protoplanetary embryos. At a few AU in a minimum mass nebula, embryos' growth is…
The host star metallicity provide a measure of the conditions in protoplanetary disks at the time of planet formation. Using a sample of over 20,000 Kepler stars with spectroscopic metallicities from the LAMOST survey, we explore how the…
The Neptune desert is no longer empty. A handful of close-in planets with masses between those of Neptune and Saturn have now been discovered, and their puzzling properties have inspired a number of interesting theories on the formation and…
The core-accretion model predicts that planetary cores as massive as super-Earths undergo runaway gas accretion to become gas giants. However, the exoplanet census revealed the prevalence of super-Earths close to their host stars, which…
Sedimentation rates of silicate grains in gas giant protoplanets formed by disk instability are calculated for protoplanetary masses between 1 M_Saturn to 10 M_Jupiter. Giant protoplanets with masses of 5 M_Jupiter or larger are found to be…
Context: Current exoplanet formation studies tend to overlook the birth environment of stars in clustered environments. The effect of this environment on the planet-formation process, however, is important, especially in the earliest stage.…
Mars is likely to be a planetary embryo formed through collisions with planetesimals, which can explain its small mass and rapid formation timescale obtained from 182Hf-182$W chronometry. In the classical theory of planet formation, the…
Formation of planets in the Neptune size range with low-mass, but voluminous, H_2/He gaseous envelopes is modeled by detailed numerical simulations according to the core-nucleated accretion scenario. Formation locations ranging from 0.5 to…
Circumplanetary disks can be found around forming giant planets, regardless of whether core accretion or gravitational instability built the planet. We carried out state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations of the circumplanetary disks for…
The solid accretion rate, necessary to grow gas giant planetary cores within the disk lifetime, has been a major constraint for theories of planet formation. We tested the solid accretion rate efficiency on planetary cores of different…
The composition of giant planets' atmospheres is an important tracer of their formation history. While many theoretical studies investigate the heavy-element accretion within a gaseous protoplanetary disk, the possibility of solid accretion…
Migration is a key ingredient for the formation of close-in super-Earth and mini-Neptune systems, as it sets in which resonances planets can be trapped. Slower migration rates result in wider resonance configurations compared to higher…
Transition disks have dust-depleted inner regions and may represent an intermediate step of an on-going disk dispersal process, where planet formation is probably in progress. Recent millimetre observations of transition disks reveal…