[46.14] Dynamical Stability of Earth-like Orbits in Binary Systems

AAS 201st Meeting, January, 2003
Session 46. Planetary Systems: Observations and Models
Poster, Tuesday, January 7, 2003, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall AB

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[46.14U] Dynamical Stability of Earth-like Orbits in Binary Systems

E. David (Xavier University), E. Quintana (University of Michigan), M. Fatuzzo (Xavier University), F. C. Adams (University of Michigan)

We explore the stability of an Earth-like planet orbiting a solar mass star in the presence of an outer-lying intermediate mass companion. Specifically, we numerically determine the planet's ejection time for an extensive range of companion masses, eccentricities, and semi-major axes. We find power-law relations between the ejection time and the companion's perihelion distance to the solar mass star. Although the numerically intensive nature of our calculation limits most of our integration times to 10 million years, we extrapolate our results to draw conclusions about the habitability of Earth-like planets.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: davide@xu.edu

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