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M. Kuchner, M. Holman (Smithsonian)
A planet with moderate orbital eccentricity inside a circumstellar dust cloud can trap blobs of dust that revolove around the star at j/(j+1) times the planet's orbital frequency, where j is a whole number. We explore this phenomenon and how the appearance of a circumstellar dust cloud can vary with the orbital phase of a perturbing planet. We suggest that the blobs in the Epsilon Eridani ring indicate the presence of a Neptune analog on an eccentric orbit.
This work was performed in part under contract with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) through the Michelson Fellowship program funded by NASA as an element of the Planet Finder Program.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mkuchner@cfa.harvard.edu