Confirmation of Earth-Mass Planets Orbiting the Millisecond Pulsar PSR B1257 + 12

The discovery of two Earth-mass planets orbiting an old ( approximately 10(9) years), rapidly spinning neutron star, the 6.2-millisecond radio pulsar PSR B1257+12, was announced in early 1992. It was soon pointed out that the approximately 3:2 ratio of the planets' orbital periods should lead to accurately predictable and possibly measurable gravitational perturbations of their orbits. The unambiguous detection of this effect, after 3 years of systematic timing observations of PSR B1257+12 with the 305-meter Arecibo radiotelescope, as well as the discovery of another, moon-mass object in orbit around the pulsar, constitutes irrefutable evidence that the first planetary system around a star other than the sun has been identified.     

Dynamical Instabilities and the Formation of Extrasolar Planetary Systems

The existence of a dominant massive planet, Jupiter, in our solar system, although perhaps essential for long-term dynamical stability and the development of life, may not be typical of planetary systems that form around other stars. In a system containing two Jupiter-like planets, the possibility exists that a dynamical instability will develop. Computer simulations suggest that in many cases this instability leads to the ejection of one planet while the other is left in a smaller, eccentric orbit. In extreme cases, the eccentric orbit has a small enough periastron distance that it may circularize at an orbital period as short as a few days through tidal dissipation. This may explain the recently detected Jupiter-mass planets in very tight circular orbits and wider eccentric orbits around nearby stars.     

Depletion of the Outer Asteroid Belt

During the early history of the solar system, it is likely that the outer planets changed their distance from the sun, and hence, their influence on the asteroid belt evolved with time. The gravitational influence of Jupiter and Saturn on the orbital evolution of asteroids in the outer asteroid belt was calculated. The results show that the sweeping of mean motion resonances associated with planetary migration efficiently destabilizes orbits in the outer asteroid belt on a time scale of 10 million years. This mechanism provides an explanation for the observed depletion of asteroids in that region.     

Extrasolar planets: constraints for planet formation models

Since 1995, more than 150 extrasolar planets have been discovered, most of them in orbits quite different from those of the giant planets in our own solar system. The number of discovered extrasolar planets demonstrates that planetary systems are common but also that they may possess a large variety of properties. As the number of detections grows, statistical studies of the properties of exoplanets and their host stars can be conducted to unravel some of the key physical and chemical processes leading to the formation of planetary systems.     

The Kuiper belt and the solar system's comet disk

Our planetary system is embedded in a small-body disk of asteroids and comets, vestigial remnants of the original planetesimal population that formed the planets. Once formed, those planets dispersed most of the remaining small bodies. Outside of Neptune, this process has left our Kuiper belt and built the Oort cloud, as well as emplacing comets into several other identifiable structures. The orbits in these structures indicate that our outer solar system's comet disk was shaped by a variety of different physical processes, which teach us about how the giant planets formed. Recent work has shown that the scattered disk is the most likely source of short-period comets. Moreover, a growing body of evidence indicates that the sculpting of the Kuiper belt region may have involved large-scale planetary migration, the presence of other rogue planetary objects in the disk, and/or the close passage of other stars in the Sun's birth cluster.     

Origin and evolution of outer solar system atmospheres

The atmospheres of bodies in the outer solar system are distinct in composition from those of the inner planets and provide a complementary set of clues to the origin of the solar system. This article reviews current understanding of the origin and evolution of these atmospheres on the basis of abundances of key molecular species. The systematic enrichment of methane and deuterated species from Jupiter to Neptune is consistent with formation models in which significant infall of icy and rocky planetesimals accompanies the formation of giant planets. The atmosphere of the Saturnian satellite Titan has been strongly modified by photochemistry and interaction with the surface over 4.5 billion years; the combined knowledge of this moon's bulk density and estimates of the composition of the surface and atmosphere provide some constraints on this body's formation. Neptune's satellite Triton is a poorly known object for which it is hoped that substantial information will be gleaned from the Voyager 2 encounter in August 1989. The mean density of the Pluto-Charon system is well known and suggests an origin in the rather water-poor solar nebula. The recent occultation of a star by Pluto provides evidence that carbon monoxide, in addition to methane, may be present in its atmosphere.     

Discovery of a Jupiter/Saturn analog with gravitational microlensing

Searches for extrasolar planets have uncovered an astonishing diversity of planetary systems, yet the frequency of solar system analogs remains unknown. The gravitational microlensing planet search method is potentially sensitive to multiple-planet systems containing analogs of all the solar system planets except Mercury. We report the detection of a multiple-planet system with microlensing. We identify two planets with masses of approximately 0.71 and approximately 0.27 times the mass of Jupiter and orbital separations of approximately 2.3 and approximately 4.6 astronomical units orbiting a primary star of mass approximately 0.50 solar mass at a distance of approximately 1.5 kiloparsecs. This system resembles a scaled version of our solar system in that the mass ratio, separation ratio, and equilibrium temperatures of the planets are similar to those of Jupiter and Saturn. These planets could not have been detected with other techniques; their discovery from only six confirmed microlensing planet detections suggests that solar system analogs may be common.     

Cosmic-ray record in solar system matter

The energetic nuclei in cosmic rays interact with meteoroids, the moon, planets, and other solar system matter. The nuclides and heavy nuclei tracks produced by the cosmic-ray particles in these targets contain a wealth of information about the history of the objects and temporal and spatial variations in the particle fluxes. Most lunar samples and meny meteorites have complex histories of cosmicray exposure from erosion, gardening, fragmentation, orbital changes, and other processes. There appear to be variations in the past fluxes of solar particles, and possibly also galactic cosmic rays, on time scales of 10(4) to 10(7) years.     

Proximity of jupiter-like planets to low-mass stars

The sensitivities of astrometric and radial velocity searches for extrasolar planets are strongly dependent on planetary masses and orbits. Because most nearby stars are less massive than the sun, the first detection is likely to be of a Jupiter-mass planet orbiting a low-mass star, with a possible theoretical expectation being that Jupiter-like planets will be found much closer [inside the Earth-sun separation of 1 astronomical unit (AU)] to these low-luminosity stars than Jupiter is to the sun (5.2 AU). However, radiative hydrodynamic models of protoplanetary disks around low-mass stars (of 0.1 to 1 solar mass) show that Jupiter-like planets should form at distances (approximately 4 to 5 AU) that are only weakly dependent on the stellar mass.     

Interiors of the giant planets

Unlike the terrestrial planets, the giant planets-Jupiter, Satum, Uranus, and Neptune-have retained large amounts of the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen compounds that were present in their zone of formation. A smaller fraction of the available hydrogen and helium was retained. The distribution and relative amounts of these components in the interiors of the Jovian planets can be inferred from theoretical and expermental data on equations of state and from the planets' hydrostatic equilibrium response to rotation.     

PLANETARY SCIENCE: Newfound Worlds Hint at Hard-Knock Life

Last week at the International Astronomical Union 24th General Assembly, astronomers announced nine newly discovered planets orbiting other stars. The roster of extrasolar planets, now nearing 50, suggests that stars are fecund breeding grounds for worlds but that young planets must battle hordes of rivals for a handful of stable orbits.     

A primordial origin of the Laplace relation among the Galilean satellites

Understanding the origin of the orbital resonances of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter will constrain the longevity of the extensive volcanism on Io, may explain a liquid ocean on Europa, and may guide studies of the dissipative properties of stars and Jupiter-like planets. The differential migration of the newly formed Galilean satellites due to interactions with a circumjovian disk can lead to the primordial formation of the Laplace relation n(1) - 3n(2) + 2n(3) = 0, where the n(i) are the mean orbital angular velocities of Io, Europa, and Ganymede, respectively. This contrasts with the formation of the resonances by differential expansion of the orbits from tidal torques from Jupiter.     

The origin of planetary impactors in the inner solar system

Insights into the history of the inner solar system can be derived from the impact cratering record of the Moon, Mars, Venus, and Mercury and from the size distributions of asteroid populations. Old craters from a unique period of heavy bombardment that ended approximately 3.8 billion years ago were made by asteroids that were dynamically ejected from the main asteroid belt, possibly due to the orbital migration of the giant planets. The impactors of the past approximately 3.8 billion years have a size distribution quite different from that of the main belt asteroids but very similar to that of near-Earth asteroids.     

The detection and characterization of a nontransiting planet by transit timing variations

The Kepler mission is monitoring the brightness of ~150,000 stars, searching for evidence of planetary transits. As part of the Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler (HEK) project, we report a planetary system with two confirmed planets and one candidate planet discovered with the publicly available data for KOI-872. Planet b transits the host star with a period P(b) = 33.6 days and exhibits large transit timing variations indicative of a perturber. Dynamical modeling uniquely detects an outer nontransiting planet c near the 5:3 resonance (P(c) = 57.0 days) with a mass 0.37 times that of Jupiter. Transits of a third planetary candidate are also found: a 1.7-Earth radius super-Earth with a 6.8-day period. Our analysis indicates a system with nearly coplanar and circular orbits, reminiscent of the orderly arrangement within the solar system.     

Runaway growth of planetary embryos facilitated by massive bodies in a protoplanetary disk

About 30% of detected extrasolar planets exist in multiple-star systems. The standard model of planet formation cannot easily accommodate such systems and has difficulty explaining the odd orbital characteristics of most extrasolar giant planets. We demonstrate that the formation of terrestrial-size planets may be insulated from these problems, enabling much of the framework of the standard model to be salvaged for use in complex systems. A type of runaway growth is identified that allows planetary embryos to form by a combination of nebular gas drag and perturbations from massive companions-be they giant planets, brown dwarfs, or other stars.     

The occurrence and mass distribution of close-in super-Earths, Neptunes, and Jupiters

The questions of how planets form and how common Earth-like planets are can be addressed by measuring the distribution of exoplanet masses and orbital periods. We report the occurrence rate of close-in planets (with orbital periods less than 50 days), based on precise Doppler measurements of 166 Sun-like stars. We measured increasing planet occurrence with decreasing planet mass (M). Extrapolation of a power-law mass distribution fitted to our measurements, df/dlogM = 0.39 M(-0.48), predicts that 23% of stars harbor a close-in Earth-mass planet (ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 Earth masses). Theoretical models of planet formation predict a deficit of planets in the domain from 5 to 30 Earth masses and with orbital periods less than 50 days. This region of parameter space is in fact well populated, implying that such models need substantial revision.     

太阳系天体相对地球某点的波动式螺线运动(Ⅱ)——太阳系七大行星相对地球某点的螺线运动方程推导及模拟分析

为研究太阳系天体相对地球某点的运动规律,在太阳系天体相对地球某点的波动式螺线运动(I)中推导出太阳和月球对地球赤道某点和纬度某点的波动式螺线运动轨迹方程,并进行了计算机模拟与分析的基础上,推导出太阳系七大行星对地球赤道某点和纬度某点的波动式螺线运动轨迹方程,并分别进行了计算机模拟与分析.结果表明,太阳系七大行星相对于地球某点的运动轨迹为与幅值与角度相关的波动式螺线,向x轴方向等速传播,并且在两种坐标轴下的运动规律与太阳、月亮类似.并且:1在双波动坐标轴下分析,水星运动轨迹在yz平面上的投影出现重波;2金星运动轨迹在yz平面上的投影疏密度与其余星球相反;3在波动-螺面坐标轴下分析,天王星和海王星螺线与太阳的最相近.     

Organic composition of C/1999 S4 (LINEAR): a comet formed near Jupiter?

In the current paradigm, Oort cloud comets formed in the giant planets' region of the solar nebula, where temperatures and other conditions varied greatly. The measured compositions of four such comets (Halley, Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp, and Lee) are consistent with formation from interstellar ices in the cold nebular region beyond Uranus. The composition of comet C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) differs greatly, which suggests that its ices condensed from processed nebular gas, probably in the Jupiter-Saturn region. Its unusual organic composition may require reevaluation of the prebiotic organic material delivered to the young Earth by comets.     

A low temperature transfer of ALH84001 from Mars to Earth

The ejection of material from Mars is thought to be caused by large impacts that would heat much of the ejecta to high temperatures. Images of the magnetic field of martian meteorite ALH84001 reveal a spatially heterogeneous pattern of magnetization associated with fractures and rock fragments. Heating the meteorite to 40 degrees C reduces the intensity of some magnetic features, indicating that the interior of the rock has not been above this temperature since before its ejection from the surface of Mars. Because this temperature cannot sterilize most bacteria or eukarya, these data support the hypothesis that meteorites could transfer life between planets in the solar system.     

Surface discharges on natural dielectrics in the solar system

When Earth-orbiting spacecraft are exposed to large fluxes of energetic charged particles, electric discharges occur on circuit boards, solar panels, and other dielectric surfaces. Large fluxes of energetic partides can produce such discharges on natural materials in the solar system. Surface discharges will occur under a variety of conditions, but particularly favorable environments are expected to occur within the magnetospheres of the giant planets; an example is the surface of Io.