Related papers: Close stellar encounters kicking planets out of ha…
How good is our universe at making habitable planets? The answer to this depends on which factors are important for life: Does a planet need to be Earth mass? Does it need to be inside the temperate zone? are systems with hot Jupiters…
Motivated by the report of a possible new planetary member of the Solar System, this work calculates cross sections for interactions between passing stars and this proposed Planet Nine. Evidence for the new planet is provided by the orbital…
Analyzing exoplanets detected by radial velocity or transit observations, we determine the multiplicity of exoplanet host stars in order to study the influence of a stellar companion on the properties of planet candidates. Matching the host…
With more and more extrasolar planets discovered in and around binary star systems, questions concerning the determination of the classical Habitable Zone arise. Do the radiative and gravitational perturbations of the second star influence…
The search for habitable exoplanets and life beyond the Solar System is one of the most compelling scientific opportunities of our time. Nevertheless, the high cost of building facilities that can address this topic and the keen public…
The discovery of planets around PSR~1257+12 suggests that planetary systems may be detected around the recycled pulsars found in globular clusters. Planetary systems in dense clusters have lifetimes to disruption due to perturbations by…
When searching for inhabited exoplanets, understanding the boundaries of the habitable zone around the parent star is key. If life can strongly influence its global environment, then we would expect the boundaries of the habitable zone to…
The ejection of planets by the instability of planetary systems is a potential source of free-floating planets. We numerically simulate multi-planet systems to study the evolution process, the properties of surviving systems, and the…
Most stars form in dense stellar environments, where frequent close encounters can strongly perturb and reshape the early architecture of planetary systems. The solar system, with its rich population of distant comets, provides a natural…
Stellar high-energy radiation is a key driver of atmospheric erosion and evolution in exoplanets, directly affecting their long-term habitability. We present a comprehensive study on stellar high-energy radiation and its impact on…
Among the growing list of confirmed exoplanets, the number of planets identified in dense star clusters remains sparse. Previous analyses have suggested this may be due in part to dynamical interactions that unbind large fractions of…
Close encounters of stars to the Sun could affect life on Earth through gravitational perturbations of comets in the Oort cloud or exposure to ionizing radiation. By integrating orbits through the Galactic potential, I identify which of 33…
We present stellar evolution models for 0.5 - 1.2 \Msol at scaled metallicities of 0.1 - 1.5 Z\sol and O/Fe values of 0.44 - 2.28 O/Fe\sol. The time dependent evolution of habitable zone boundaries are calculated for each stellar evolution…
Due to the high stellar densities in young clusters, planetary systems formed in these environments are likely to have experienced perturbations from encounters with other stars. We carry out direct $N$-body simulations of multi-planet…
We use a sample of close galaxy pairs selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 (SDSS DR4) to investigate in what environments galaxy mergers occur and how the results of these mergers depend on differences in local galaxy…
We study the evolution of disc galaxies in group environments under the effect of both the global tidal field and close-encounters between galaxies, using controlled N-body simulations of isolated mergers. We find that close-range…
Most stars form in a clustered environment. Therefore, it is important to assess how this environment influences the evolution of protoplanetary discs around young stars. In turn, this affects their ability to produce planets and ultimately…
Inspired by the close-proximity pair of planets in the Kepler-36 system, we consider two effects that may have important ramifications for the development of life in similar systems where a pair of planets may reside entirely in the…
A planet orbiting in the "habitable zone" of our closest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri, has recently been discovered, and the next natural question is whether or not Proxima b is "habitable". Stellar winds are likely a source of…
Exoplanet detection in the past decade by efforts including NASA's Kepler and TESS missions has discovered many worlds that differ substantially from planets in our own Solar System, including more than 150 exoplanets orbiting binary or…