Related papers: Effects of Proxima Centauri on Planet Formation in…
The recently discovered circumbinary planets (Kepler-16 b, Kepler-34 b, Kepler-35 b) represent the first direct evidence of the viability of planet formation in circumbinary orbits. We report on the results of N-body simulations…
Context. The fraction of field binaries on retrograde orbits about the Milky Way is significantly lower compared to its prograde counterpart. Chemical and dynamical evidence suggests that the retrograde stellar population originates from…
The nearby exoplanet Proxima Centauri b will be a prime future target for characterization, despite questions about its retention of water. Climate models with static oceans suggest that an Earth-like Proxima b could harbor a small dayside…
In this article, I examine several observational trends regarding protoplanetary disks, debris disks and exoplanets in binary systems in an attempt to constrain the physical mechanisms of planet formation in such a context. Binaries wider…
Observations of circumbinary planets orbiting very close to the central stars have shown that planet formation may occur in a very hostile environment, where the gravitational pull from the binary should be very strong on the primordial…
Given the considerable percentage of stars that are members of binaries or stellar multiples in the Solar neighborhood, it is expected that many of these binaries host planets, possibly even habitable ones. The discovery of a terrestrial…
The binary star system gamma Cephei is unusual in that it harbours a stable giant planet around the larger star at a distance only about a tenth of that of the stellar separation. Numerical simulations are carried out into the stability of…
We evaluate the extent of the regions within the $\alpha$ Centauri AB star system where small planets are able to orbit for billion-year timescales, and we calculate the positions on the sky plane where planets on stable orbits about either…
Proxima Centauri is known as the closest star from the Sun. Recently, radial velocity observations revealed the existence of an Earth-mass planet around it. With an orbital period of ~11 days, the surface of Proxima Centauri b is temperate…
Understanding the origin of planets that have formed in binary stars is fundamental to constrain theories of binary and planet formation. The planet occurrence rate in binaries with a separation $\lesssim 50$ AU is only $\sim$ one third…
Recent radial velocity and transit data discovered $\sim 100$ planets in binary or triple stellar systems out of the entire population of a few thousand known planets. Stellar companions are expected to strongly influence both the formation…
The recent discovery of an Earth-like exoplanet around Proxima Centauri has shined a spot light on slowly rotating fully convective M-stars. When such stars rotate rapidly (period $\lesssim 20$ days), they are known to generate very high…
We apply a mathematical model for photosynthesis to quantitatively assess the habitability of a hypothetical planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, inside the so called habitability zone. Results suggest significant viability for primary…
We study the resolved stellar populations of dwarf galaxies in the nearby Centaurus A/M83 group of galaxies. Our goal is to characterize their evolutionary history and to investigate eventual similarities or differences with the dwarf…
Almost half of the stellar systems in the solar neighborhood are made up of multiple stars. In multiple-star systems, planet formation is under the dynamical influence of stellar companions, and the planet occurrence rate is expected to be…
It has been suggested that the long-lived residual radial velocity variations observed in the precision radial velocity measurements of the primary of Gamma Cephei (HR8974, HD222404, HIP116727) are likely due to a Jupiter-like planet around…
We have found that Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our Sun, will pass close to a pair of faint background stars in the next few years. Using Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images obtained in 2012 October, we determine that the passage…
We present radiation hydrodynamic simulations in which binary planets form by close encounters in a system of several super-Earth embryos. The embryos are embedded in a protoplanetary disk consisting of gas and pebbles and evolve in a…
We present results from the most comprehensive radio monitoring campaign towards the closest star to our Sun, Proxima Centauri. We report 1.1 to 3.1 GHz observations with the Australian Telescope Compact Array over 18 consecutive days in…
Planets orbiting one of the two stars in a binary are vulnerable to gravitational perturbations from the other star. Particularly, highly eccentric companion stars risk disrupting planetary orbits, such as in the extreme system TOI 4633…