Related papers: Corralling a distant planet with extreme resonant …
We suggest the existence of a correlation between the planetary radius and orbital period for planets with radii smaller than 4 R_Earth. Using the Kepler data, we find a correlation coefficient of 0.5120, and suggest that the correlation is…
Many Kepler multiplanet systems have planet pairs near low-order, mean-motion resonances. In addition, many Kepler multiplanet systems have planets with orbital periods less than a few days. With the exception of Kepler-42, however, there…
Recent analyses of Kepler space telescope data reveal that transiting planets with orbital periods shorter than about 2-3 days are generally observed around late-type stars with rotation periods longer than about 5-10 days. We investigate…
A number of planet-host stars have been observed to rotate with a period equal to an integer multiple of the orbital period of their close planet. We expand this list by analyzing Kepler data of HAT-P-11 and finding a period ratio of 6:1.…
For a hypothetical planet on a highly eccentric orbit, we have calculated the osculating orbital parameters and its closest approaches to Earth and Moon over a period of 750 kyr. The approaches which are close enough to influence the…
A fraction of multiple planet candidate systems discovered from transits by the Kepler mission contain pairs of planet candidates that are in orbital resonance or are spaced slightly too far apart to be in resonance. We focus here on the…
Recent analyses have shown that distant orbits within the scattered disk population of the Kuiper belt exhibit an unexpected clustering in their respective arguments of perihelion. While several hypotheses have been put forward to explain…
In order to study the origin of the architectures of low mass planetary systems, we perform numerical surveys of the evolution of pairs of coplanar planets in the mass range $(1-4)\ \rmn{M}_{\oplus}.$ These evolve for up to $2\times10^7…
Planetary systems discovered by the Kepler space telescope exhibit an intriguing feature. While the period ratios of adjacent low-mass planets appear largely random, there is a significant excess of pairs that lie just wide of resonances…
We report the detection of Kepler-47, a system consisting of two planets orbiting around an eclipsing pair of stars. The inner and outer planets have radii 3.0 and 4.6 times that of the Earth, respectively. The binary star consists of a…
Strong tidal interaction with the central star can circularize the orbits of close-in planets. With the standard tidal quality factor Q of our solar system, estimated circularization times for close-in extrasolar planets are typically…
We consider the general spatial three body problem and study the dynamics of planetary systems consisting of a star and two planets which evolve into 2/1 mean motion resonance and into inclined orbits. Our study is focused on the periodic…
The multiple-planet systems discovered by the Kepler mission show an excess of planet pairs with period ratios just wide of exact commensurability for first-order resonances like 2:1 and 3:2. In principle, these planet pairs could have both…
The Kepler-11 planetary system contains six transiting planets ranging in size from 1.8 to 4.2 times the radius of Earth. Five of these planets orbit in a tightly-packed configuration with periods between 10 and 47 days. We perform a…
Many multiple-planet systems have been found by the Kepler transit survey and various radial velocity (RV) surveys. Kepler planets show an asymmetric feature, namely, there are small but significant deficits/excesses of planet pairs with…
The {\it Kepler} mission revealed a population of compact multiple-planet systems with orbital periods shorter than a year, and occasionally even shorter than a day. By analyzing a sample of 102 {\it Kepler} and {\it K2} multi-planet…
Short-period super-Earths and mini-Neptunes encircle more than $\sim50\%$ of Sun-like stars and are relatively amenable to direct observational characterization. Despite this, environments in which these planets accrete are difficult to…
The orbital evolution and stability of planetary systems with interaction from the belts is studied using the standard phase-plane analysis. In addition to the fixed point which corresponds to the Keplerian orbit, there are other fixed…
The orbital parameters of the observed extrasolar planets differ strongly from those of our own solar system. The differences include planets with high masses, small semi-major axis and large eccentricities. We performed numerical…
Kepler will monitor enough stars that it is likely to detect single transits of planets with periods longer than the mission lifetime. We show that by combining the Kepler photometry of such transits with precise radial velocity (RV)…