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G. Laughlin (UC Santa Cruz)
A decade ago, the nine familiar worlds in our solar system were the only planets known. Within the past ten years, however, more than 110 additional planets have been discovered, and the pace of discovery has increased to the however, more than 110 additional planets have been discovered, and the pace of discovery has increased to the point where new extrasolar planets are found nearly every month. In this talk, I will give an overview of our current understanding of the galactic planetary census, with a particular focus on how the new discoveries are giving us a better understanding of our own Solar System's origin, evolution, and overall place within the Galaxy's distribution of worlds.
I will start by showing how the known extrasolar planets can be naturally grouped into three major categories: (1) the Hot Jupiters, (2) the Eccentric Giants, and (3) the long-period low-eccentricity planets resembling Jupiter and Saturn. I will then give an overview of what the population of extrasolar planets is telling us about planetary formation and evolution. I will explain the important roles played by planetary migration and planet-disk interactions during the first few milion years of a planet's development, as well as the planet-planet perturbations and chaotic interactions that can sculpt planetary configurations over time scales reaching into the billions of years. Multiple-planet systems (of which more than ten are now time scales reaching into the billions of years. Multiple-planet systems (of which more than ten are now known) play a particularly important role in helping us understand these processes.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #4
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.