Planetary Systems: A Very Short Introduction

Author(s):  
Raymond T. Pierrehumbert

Planetary Systems: A Very Short Introduction takes the reader on a journey through time and space, exploring how planetary systems such as ours form and evolve, and the conditions under which life may arise. Not long ago, the Solar System was the only example of a planetary system that we knew. Now, we know of thousands of planetary systems, and have even been able to observe the moment of their birth. This VSI reveals the astonishing variety of planetary systems out there. It explores the insights gained about these other worlds from a new generation of telescopes.

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S276) ◽  
pp. 304-307
Author(s):  
Melvyn B. Davies

AbstractMany stars are formed in some form of cluster or association. These environments can have a much higher number density of stars than the field of the galaxy. Such crowded places are hostile environments: a large fraction of initially single stars will undergo close encounters with other stars or exchange into binaries. We describe how such close encounters and exchange encounters will affect the properties of a planetary system around a single star. We define singletons as single stars which have never suffered close encounters with other stars or spent time within a binary system. It may be that planetary systems similar to our own solar system can only survive around singletons. Close encounters or the presence of a stellar companion will perturb the planetary system, leading to strong planet-planet interactions, often leaving planets on tighter and more eccentric orbits. Thus, planetary systems which initially resembled our own solar system may later more closely resemble the observed extrasolar planetary systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 648 ◽  
pp. L2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Václav Pavlík ◽  
Steven N. Shore

Aims. We aim to investigate the consequences of a fast massive stellar remnant – a black hole (BH) or a neutron star (NS) – encountering a planetary system. Methods. We modelled a close encounter between the actual Solar System (SS) and a 2 M⊙ NS and a 10 M⊙ BH, using a few-body symplectic integrator. We used a range of impact parameters, orbital phases at the start of the simulation derived from the current SS orbital parameters, encounter velocities, and incidence angles relative to the plane of the SS. Results. We give the distribution of possible outcomes, such as when the SS remains bound, when it suffers a partial or complete disruption, and in which cases the intruder is able to capture one or more planets, yielding planetary systems around a BH or a NS. We also show examples of the long-term stability of the captured planetary systems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 488 (1) ◽  
pp. 1366-1376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daohai Li ◽  
Alexander J Mustill ◽  
Melvyn B Davies

ABSTRACTStars formed in clusters can encounter other stars at close distances. In typical open clusters in the Solar neighbourhood containing hundreds or thousands of member stars, 10–20 per cent of Solar-mass member stars are expected to encounter another star at distances closer than 100 au. These close encounters strongly perturb the planetary systems, directly causing ejection of planets or their capture by the intruding star, as well as exciting the orbits. Using extensive N-body simulations, we study such fly-by encounters between two Solar system analogues, each with four giant planets from Jupiter to Neptune. We quantify the rates of loss and capture immediately after the encounter, e.g. the Neptune analogue is lost in one in four encounters within 100 au, and captured by the flying-by star in 1 in 12 encounters. We then perform long-term (up to 1 Gyr) simulations investigating the ensuing post-encounter evolution. We show that large numbers of planets are removed from systems due to planet–planet interactions and that captured planets further enhance the system instability. While encounters can initially leave a planetary system containing more planets by inserting additional ones, the long-term instability causes a net reduction in planet number. A captured planet ends up on a retrograde orbit in half of the runs in which it survives for 1Gyr; also, a planet bound to its original host star but flipped during the encounter may survive. Thus, encounters between planetary systems are a channel to create counter-rotating planets, This would happen in around 1 per cent of systems, and such planets are potentially detectable through astrometry or direct imaging.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S246) ◽  
pp. 273-274
Author(s):  
D. Malmberg ◽  
M. B. Davies ◽  
J. E. Chambers ◽  
F. De Angeli ◽  
R. P. Church ◽  
...  

AbstractMost stars are formed in a cluster or association, where the number density of stars can be high. This means that a large fraction of initially-single stars will undergo close encounters with other stars and/or exchange into binaries. We describe how such close encounters and exchange encounters can affect the properties of a planetary system around a single star. We define a singleton as a single star which has never suffered close encounters with other stars or spent time within a binary system. It may be that planetary systems similar to our own solar system can only survive around singletons. Close encounters or the presence of a stellar companion will perturb the planetary system, often leaving planets on tighter and more eccentric orbits. Thus planetary systems which initially resembled our own solar system may later more closely resemble some of the observed exoplanet systems.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S236) ◽  
pp. 77-84
Author(s):  
Jianghui Ji ◽  
L. Liu ◽  
G. Y. Li

AbstractWe investigate the secular resonances for massless small bodies and Earth-like planets in several planetary systems. We further compare the results with those of Solar System. For example, in the GJ 876 planetary system, we show that the secular resonances ν1 and ν2 (respectively, resulting from the inner and outer giant planets) can excite the eccentricities of the Earth-like planets with orbits 0.21≤ a <0.50 AU and eject them out of the system in a short timescale. However, in a dynamical sense, the potential zones for the existence of Earth-like planets are in the area 0.50≤ a ≤1.00 AU, and there exist all stable orbits last up to 105 yr with low eccentricities. For other systems, e.g., 47 UMa, we also show that the Habitable Zones for Earth-like planets are related to both secular resonances and mean motion resonances in the systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (1) ◽  
pp. 1313-1322
Author(s):  
Nanna Bach-Møller ◽  
Uffe G Jørgensen

ABSTRACT The orbit eccentricities of the Solar system planets are unusually low compared to the average of known exoplanetary systems. A power-law correlation has previously been found between the multiplicity of a planetary system and the orbital eccentricities of its components, for systems with multiplicities above two. In this study we investigate the correlation for an expanded data sample by focusing on planetary systems as units (unlike previous studies that have focused on individual planets). Our full data sample contains 1171 exoplanets, in 895 systems, and the correlation between eccentricity and multiplicity is found to follow a clear power law for all multiplicities above one. We discuss the correlation for several individual subsamples and find that all samples consistently follow the same basic trend regardless of e.g. planet types and detection methods. We find that the eccentricities of the Solar system fit the general trend and suggest that the Solar system might not show uncommonly low eccentricities (as often speculated) but rather uncommonly many planets compared to a ‘standard’ planetary system. The only outlier from the power-law correlation is, consistently in all the samples, the one-planet systems. It has previously been suggested that this may be due to additional unseen exoplanets in the observed one-planet systems. Based on this assumption and the power-law correlation, we estimate that the probability of a system having eight planets or more is of the order of 1 per cent, in good agreement with recent predictions from analyses based on independent arguments.


Author(s):  
James Binney

Since 1995, roughly a thousand extra-solar planetary systems have been discovered, and the process of understanding how these systems formed and evolved to their present states is having a profound impact on how we think about our own planetary system. ‘Planetary systems’ explains the dynamics of planetary systems, including perturbation theory, and how planets form by the collision of asteroids to form bigger and bigger asteroids. The evolution of planetary systems is also discussed with details of the young solar system. It concludes that were it not for Einstein’s absolutely tiny corrections to Newton’s equations, planet Earth would almost certainly not be in a position to offer us shelter.


2004 ◽  
Vol 202 ◽  
pp. 115-117
Author(s):  
G. M. Rudnitskij

When a star with a mass of about 1 solar mass enters the red giant stage of its evolution, the radius of its atmosphere reaches several astronomical units. If the star possessed during its mainsequence life a planetary system, similar to the solar system, the planets will be embedded into a rather dense and hot medium. Effects of a planet revolving around a red giant at a short distance (inside its circumstellar envelope) are discussed. Systematic monitoring of the spectra of red giants may reveal periodicities in the emergence of shock-induced emission lines and thus to detect probable remnant planetary systems around these stars.


2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (2) ◽  
pp. 2280-2297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Flammini Dotti ◽  
M B N Kouwenhoven ◽  
Maxwell Xu Cai ◽  
Rainer Spurzem

ABSTRACTYoung stars are mostly found in dense stellar environments, and even our own Solar system may have formed in a star cluster. Here, we numerically explore the evolution of planetary systems similar to our own Solar system in star clusters. We investigate the evolution of planetary systems in star clusters. Most stellar encounters are tidal, hyperbolic, and adiabatic. A small fraction of the planetary systems escape from the star cluster within 50 Myr; those with low escape speeds often remain intact during and after the escape process. While most planetary systems inside the star cluster remain intact, a subset is strongly perturbed during the first 50 Myr. Over the course of time, $0.3\!-\!5.3{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the planets escape, sometimes up to tens of millions of years after a stellar encounter occurred. Survival rates are highest for Jupiter, while Uranus and Neptune have the highest escape rates. Unless directly affected by a stellar encounter itself, Jupiter frequently serves as a barrier that protects the terrestrial planets from perturbations in the outer planetary system. In low-density environments, Jupiter provides protection from perturbations in the outer planetary system, while in high-density environments, direct perturbations of Jupiter by neighbouring stars is disruptive to habitable-zone planets. The diversity amongst planetary systems that is present in the star clusters at 50 Myr, and amongst the escaping planetary systems, is high, which contributes to explaining the high diversity of observed exoplanet systems in star clusters and in the Galactic field.


2019 ◽  
Vol 492 (1) ◽  
pp. 377-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A Wittenmyer ◽  
Songhu Wang ◽  
Jonathan Horner ◽  
R P Butler ◽  
C G Tinney ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Our understanding of planetary systems different to our own has grown dramatically in the past 30 yr. However, our efforts to ascertain the degree to which the Solar system is abnormal or unique have been hindered by the observational biases inherent to the methods that have yielded the greatest exoplanet hauls. On the basis of such surveys, one might consider our planetary system highly unusual – but the reality is that we are only now beginning to uncover the true picture. In this work, we use the full 18-yr archive of data from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search to examine the abundance of ‘cool Jupiters’ – analogues to the Solar system’s giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn. We find that such planets are intrinsically far more common through the cosmos than their siblings, the hot Jupiters. We find that the occurrence rate of such ‘cool Jupiters’ is $6.73^{+2.09}_{-1.13}$ per cent, almost an order of magnitude higher than the occurrence of hot Jupiters (at $0.84^{+0.70}_{-0.20}$ per cent). We also find that the occurrence rate of giant planets is essentially constant beyond orbital distances of ∼1 au. Our results reinforce the importance of legacy radial velocity surveys for the understanding of the Solar system’s place in the cosmos.


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