Related papers: A Hierarchical Bayesian Framework for Inferring th…
Misalignments between planetary orbits and the equatorial planes of their host stars are clues about the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Earlier work found evidence for a peak near $90^\circ$ in the distribution of stellar…
The rotation of a star and the revolutions of its planets are not necessarily aligned. This article reviews the measurement techniques, key findings, and theoretical interpretations related to the obliquities (spin-orbit angles) of…
The next generation of exoplanet space photometry missions proposed by both NASA and ESA promise to discover small transiting planets around the nearest and brightest main-sequence stars. The physical and rotational properties of these…
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…
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…
The stellar obliquity of a planetary system is often used to help constrain the system's formation and evolution. One of the mechanisms to reorient the stellar spin involves a secular resonance crossing due to the dissipation of the…
The distribution of stellar obliquities provides critical insight into the formation and evolution pathways of exoplanets. In the past decade, it was found that hot stars hosting hot Jupiters are more likely to have high obliquities than…
The stellar inclination angle-the angle between the rotation axis of a star and our line of sight-provides valuable information in many different areas, from the characterisation of the geometry of exoplanetary and eclipsing binary systems,…
The spin-orbit obliquity of a planetary system constraints its formation history. A large obliquity may either indicate a primordial misalignment between the star and its gaseous disk or reflect the effect of different mechanisms tilting…
The current orbital geometries of exoplanet systems offer a fossilized record of the systems' dynamical histories. A particularly rich set of dynamical mechanisms is available to exoplanets residing in multi-star systems, which may have…
The angle between the rotation and orbital axes of stars in binary systems -- the obliquity -- is an important indicator of how these systems form and evolve but few such measurements exist. We combine the sample of astrometric orbital…
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…
We have investigated the obliquity evolution of terrestrial planets in habitable zones (at ~ 1AU) in extrasolar planetary systems, due to tidal interactions with their satellite and host star with wide varieties of satellite-to-planet mass…
Changes in planetary obliquity, or axial tilt, influence the climates on Earth-like planets. In the solar system, the Earth's obliquity is stabilized due to interactions with our moon and the resulting {small amplitude variations…
Astronomers generally assume planet-forming disks are aligned with the rotation of their host star. However, recent observations have shown evidence of warping in protoplanetary disks. One can measure the statistical alignment between the…
Recent advances in sub-millimeter observations of young circumstellar nebulae have opened an unprecedented window into the structure of protoplanetary disks, which has revealed the surprising ubiquity of broken and misaligned disks. In this…
Important clues on the formation and evolution of planetary systems can be inferred from the stellar obliquity $\psi$. We study the distribution of obliquities using the California-Kepler Survey and the TEPCat Catalog of…
We recommend an intensive effort to survey and understand the obliquity distribution of small close-in extrasolar planets over the coming decade. The orbital obliquities of exoplanets--i.e., the relative orientation between the planetary…
The spin-orbit angle, or obliquity, is a powerful observational marker that allows us to access the dynamical history of exoplanetary systems. Here, we have examined the distribution of spin-orbit angles for close-in exoplanets and put it…
Planet formation is often considered in the context of one circumstellar disk around one star. Yet stellar binary systems are ubiquitous, and thus a substantial fraction of all potential planets must form and evolve in more complex,…