Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Colloquium

Thursday, February 18, 2016 at 4:00 PM

JILA Auditorium

Katherine Deck, Caltech

"The role of resonances in the evolution of planetary systems"

A Pretty Image from the Talk

Abstract:

Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered, spanning orders of magnitude in planet mass and orbital separation from their host stars, with orbits both excited and dynamically cold. A large fraction are part of multi-planet systems. These observations largely represent the planet population at a single stage in their lifetimes; to account for their diversity requires an understanding of how planetary systems evolve in time. In this talk I will discuss how dynamical processes like orbital instability and interaction with a protoplanetary disk can shape planetary systems, with an emphasis on the important role played by planetary mean motion resonances.

PHOTO CAPTION: The location of unstable orbits (in black) of two small planets with low eccentricity orbits, as determined by their initial orbital period ratio and the initial angle between them. What causes this intricate structure? Hint: the answer is in the title of my talk!

 

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