Related papers: Thermal tides on rocky planets through a novel ful…
The distribution of eccentricities e of extra-solar planets with semi-major axes a > 0.2 AU is very uniform, and values for e are generally large. For a < 0.2 AU, eccentricities are much smaller (most e < 0.2), a characteristic widely…
The stability of Earth's climate on geological timescales is enabled by the carbon-silicate cycle that acts as a negative feedback mechanism stabilizing surface temperatures via the intake and outgas of atmospheric carbon. On Earth, this…
The easiest exoplanets to detect are those that orbit very close to their hoststars. As a result, even though these planets are quite rare, they represent amajor fraction of the current exoplanet population. A side-effect of theproximity…
The spin axis of a rotationally deformed planet is forced to precess about its orbital angular momentum vector, due to the tidal gravity of its host star, if these directions are misaligned. This induces internal fluid motions inside the…
In close exoplanetary systems, tidal interactions drive orbital and spin evolution of planets and stars over long timescales. Tidally-forced inertial waves (restored by the Coriolis acceleration) in the convective envelopes of low-mass…
Impacts by rocky and icy bodies are thought to have played a key role in shaping the composition of solar system objects, including the Earth's habitability. Hence, it is likely that they play a similar role in exoplanetary systems. We…
Relatively long-period nonsynchronized planets---such as warm Jupiters---potentially retain the primordial rotation, eccentricity, and obliquity that might encapsulate information on planetary climate and formation processes. To date, there…
Astrophysical fluid bodies that orbit close to one another induce tidal distortions and flows that are subject to dissipative processes. The spin and orbital motions undergo a coupled evolution over astronomical timescales, which is…
The insolation a planet receives from its parent star is the main driver of the climate and depends on the planet's orbital configuration. Planets with non-zero obliquity and eccentricity experience seasonal insolation variations. As a…
M type stars are good targets in the search for habitable extrasolar planets. Because of their low effective temperatures, the habitable zone of M stars is very close to the star itself. For planets close to their stars, tidal heating plays…
Tidally distorted rotating stars and gaseous planets are subject to a well-known linear fluid instability -- the elliptical instability. It has been proposed that this instability might drive enough energy dissipation to solve the…
We study the orbital evolution of hot Jupiters due to the excitation and damping of tidally driven $g$-modes within solar-type host stars. Linearly resonant $g$-modes (the dynamical tide) are driven to such large amplitudes in the stellar…
Tidally locked worlds provide a unique opportunity for constraining the probable climates of certain exoplanets. They are unique in that few exoplanet spin and obliquity states are known or will be determined in the near future: both of…
Clouds are ubiquitous\, -- \,they arise for every solar system planet that possesses an atmosphere and have also been suggested as a leading mechanism for obscuring spectral features in exoplanet observations. As exoplanet observations…
Context: The Solar System giant planets harbour a wide variety of moons. Moons around exoplanets are plausibly similarly abundant, even though most of them are likely too small to be easily detectable with modern instruments. Moons are…
Classical secular theory can be a powerful tool to describe the qualitative character of multi-planet systems and offer insight into their histories. The eigenmodes of the secular behavior, rather than current orbital elements, can help…
Plate tectonics is a geophysical process currently unique to Earth, has an important role in regulating the Earth's climate, and may be better understood by identifying rocky planets outside our solar system with tectonic activity. The key…
The recent detections of temperate terrestrial planets orbiting nearby stars and the promise of characterizing their atmospheres motivates a need to understand how the diversity of possible planetary parameters affects the climate of…
Turbulent friction in convective regions in stars and planets is one of the key physical mechanisms that drive the dissipation of the kinetic energy of tidal flows in their interiors and the evolution of their systems. This friction acts…
We perform numerical simulations of the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven exoplanets orbiting a nearby M dwarf, starting with a previously suggested stable configuration. The long-term stability of this configuration is confirmed, but the motion…