Related papers: Stellar obliquities in exoplanetary systems
Through the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, several hot Jupiters have been found to exhibit spin-orbit misalignment, and even retrograde orbits. The high obliquity observed in these planets can be attributed to two primary formation mechanisms,…
Having a massive moon has been considered as a primary mechanism for stabilized planetary obliquity, an example of which being our Earth. This is, however, not always consistent with the exoplanetary cases. This article details the…
The presence of giant gaseous planets that reside in close proximity to their host stars may be a consequence of large-scale radial migration through the proto-planetary nebulae. Within the context of this picture, significant orbital…
Planetary obliquity (axial tilt) plays an important role in regulating the climate evolution and habitability of water-covered planets. Despite the suspicion of large obliquities in several exoplanetary systems, this phenomenon remains hard…
The stellar obliquity of a transiting planetary system can be constrained by combining measurements of the star's rotation period, radius, and projected rotational velocity. Here we present a hierarchical Bayesian technique for recovering…
The Sun's equator and the planets' orbital planes are nearly aligned, which is presumably a consequence of their formation from a single spinning gaseous disk. For exoplanetary systems this well-aligned configuration is not guaranteed:…
The Kepler mission and its successor K2 have brought forth a cascade of transiting planets. Many of these planetary systems exhibit multiple members, but a large fraction possess only a single transiting example. This overabundance of…
The obliquity of a star, or the angle between its spin axis and the average orbit normal of its companion planets, provides a unique constraint on that system's evolutionary history. Unlike the Solar System, where the Sun's equator is…
Detached circumplanetary disks are unstable to tilting as a result of the stellar tidal potential. We examine how a tilted circumplanetary disk affects the evolution of the spin axis of an oblate planet. The disk is evolved using…
Many Sun-like stars are observed to host close-in super-Earths (SEs) as part of a multi-planetary system. In such a system, the spin of the SE evolves due to spin-orbit resonances and tidal dissipation. In the absence of tides, the planet's…
This decade has seen the first measurements of extrasolar planetary obliquities, characterizing how an exoplanet's spin axis is oriented relative to its orbital axis. These measurements are enabled by combining projected rotational…
Most extrasolar planets currently known were discovered by means of an indirect method that measures the stellar wobble caused by the planet. We previously studied a triple system composed of a star and a nearby binary on circular coplanar…
Observations of hot Jupiters around solar-type stars with very short orbital periods (~day) suggest that tidal dissipation in such stars is not too efficient so that these planets can survive against rapid orbital decay. This is consistent…
The rotation rate of a star has important implications for the detectability, characterisation and stability of any planets that may be orbiting it. This chapter gives a brief overview of stellar rotation before describing the methods used…
The Rossiter-McLaughlin effect allows us to measure the projected stellar obliquity of exoplanets. From the spin-orbit alignment, planet formation and migration theories can be tested to improve our understanding of the currently observed…
The tilt of a planet's spin axis off its orbital axis ("obliquity") is a basic physical characteristic that plays a central role in determining the planet's global circulation and energy redistribution. Moreover, recent studies have also…
Recent works suggest that, in multiplanetary systems, a close-in exoplanet can sometimes avoid becoming tidally locked to its host star if it is captured into a secular spin-orbit resonance with a companion planet. In such a resonance, the…
The angle between the stellar spin and the planetary orbit axes (spin-orbit angle) is supposed to carry valuable information on the initial condition of the planet formation and the subsequent migration history. Indeed current observations…
Kepler-56 is a multi-planet system containing two coplanar inner planets that are in orbits misaligned with respect to the spin axis of the host star, and an outer planet. Various mechanisms have been proposed to explain the broad…
Spin-orbit misalignments have been detected in exoplanetary systems and binary star systems. Tidal interactions may have played an important role in the evolution of the spin-orbit angle. In this study, we investigate the tidal interactions…