Related papers: Ultra-short-period planets from secular chaos
The increasing number of newly detected exoplanets at short orbital periods raises questions about their formation and migration histories. A particular puzzle that requires explanation arises from one of the key results of the Kepler…
We report the discovery of two additional planetary companions to WASP-41 and WASP-47. WASP-41 c is a planet of minimum mass 3.18 $\pm$ 0.20 M$_{\rm Jup}$ and eccentricity 0.29 $\pm$ 0.02, and it orbits in 421 $\pm$ 2 days. WASP-47 c is a…
The Kepler Mission has detected dozens of compact planetary systems with more than four transiting planets. This sample provides a collection of close-packed planetary systems with relatively little spread in the inclination angles of the…
In most extrasolar planetary systems, the present orbits of known giant planets admit the existence of stable terrestrial planets. Those same giant planets, however, have typically eccentric orbits that hint at violent early dynamics less…
Before the launch of the Kepler Space Telescope, models of low-mass planet formation predicted that convergent Type I migration would often produce systems of low-mass planets in low-order mean-motion resonances. Instead, Kepler discovered…
We simulate a Kepler-like observation of a theoretical exoplanet population and we show that the observed orbital period distribution of the Kepler giant planet candidates is best matched by an average stellar specific dissipation function…
Recent observations have shown that at least some close-in exoplanets maintain eccentric orbits despite tidal circularization timescales that are typically shorter than stellar ages. We explore gravitational interactions with a distant…
This paper studies the effects of dynamical interactions among the planets in observed extrasolar planetary systems, including hypothetical additional bodies, with a focus on secular perturbations. These interactions cause the…
This paper compares the statistical features of the sample of discovered extrasolar planets with those of the secondaries in nearby spectroscopic binaries, in order to enable us to distinguish between the two populations. Based on 32 planet…
In the Solar system the planets' compositions vary with orbital distance, with rocky planets in close orbits and lower-density gas giants in wider orbits. The detection of close-in giant planets around other stars was the first clue that…
Circumbinary planets are generally more likely to transit than equivalent single-star planets, but practically the geometry and orbital dynamics of circumbinary planets make the chance of observing a transit inherently time-dependent. In…
Prior to the 1990s, speculations about the occurrence of planets around other stars were based only on planet formation theory, observations of circumstellar disks, and the knowledge that at least one seemingly ordinary star had managed to…
The widespread prevalence of close-in, nearly coplanar super-Earth- and sub-Neptune-sized planets in multiple-planet systems was one of the most surprising results from the Kepler mission. By studying a uniform sample of Kepler "multis"…
At least 30\% of main sequence stars host planets with sizes of between 1 and 4 Earth radii and orbital periods of less than 100 days. We use N-body simulations including a model for gas-assisted pebble accretion and disk--planet tidal…
Recent observations have unveiled a population of pulsars with spin periods of a few minutes to hours that lie beyond the traditional ``death line.'' If they originate from neutron stars (NSs), the existence of such ultra-long period…
One focus of modern astronomy is to detect temperate terrestrial exoplanets well-suited for atmospheric characterisation. A milestone was recently achieved with the detection of three Earth-sized planets transiting (i.e. passing in front…
The Kepler planet candidates are an interesting testbed for planet formation scenarios. We present results from N-body simulations of multi-planetary systems that resemble those observed by Kepler. We add both smooth (Type I/II) and…
The Kepler high-precision planetary sample has revealed a radius valley, separating compact super-Earths from sub-Neptunes with lower density. Super-Earths are generally assumed to be rocky planets that were probably born in-situ, while the…
Most observed extrasolar planets have masses similar to, but orbits very different from, the gas giants of our solar system. Many are much closer to their parent stars than would have been expected and their orbits are often rather…
NASA's Kepler mission identified over 4000 extrasolar planets that transit (cross in front of) their host stars. This sample has revealed detailed features in the demographics of planet sizes and orbital spacings. However, knowledge of…