Architecture of Kepler’s Multi-Transiting Planet Systems
Poster Number
14C
Format
Poster Presentation
Faculty Mentor Name
Daniel Jontof-Hutter
Faculty Mentor Department
Physics
Abstract/Artist Statement
NASA's Kepler mission discovered ~700 planetary systems with multiple exoplanets orbiting the same stars. We study the typical architectures of exoplanet systems for single and multi-planet systems in hopes of shedding light on planet formation theory and the history of our solar system. This study specifically focuses on extracting information from the orbital period and period-ratios of transiting planets in the NASA Kepler catalog. In doing so, we have found that period-ratios of transiting multi-planet systems that are in mean motion resonances are not as common as they appear in current planet formation simulations. We have also managed to identify possible contributors to spikes at non-resonant period-ratios such as 2.2, which had no explanation in past literature. Statistical tests have also confirmed that observed single versus multi planet systems are drawn from different distributions. Our work improves upon prior studies that were conducted early in the Kepler mission. We have a much larger data set which enables us to perform statistical tests of typical system architectures for subsets of the data sorted by planet size, orbital period and the number of known planets.
Location
DeRosa University Center Ballroom
Start Date
27-4-2018 12:30 PM
End Date
27-4-2018 2:30 PM
Architecture of Kepler’s Multi-Transiting Planet Systems
DeRosa University Center Ballroom
NASA's Kepler mission discovered ~700 planetary systems with multiple exoplanets orbiting the same stars. We study the typical architectures of exoplanet systems for single and multi-planet systems in hopes of shedding light on planet formation theory and the history of our solar system. This study specifically focuses on extracting information from the orbital period and period-ratios of transiting planets in the NASA Kepler catalog. In doing so, we have found that period-ratios of transiting multi-planet systems that are in mean motion resonances are not as common as they appear in current planet formation simulations. We have also managed to identify possible contributors to spikes at non-resonant period-ratios such as 2.2, which had no explanation in past literature. Statistical tests have also confirmed that observed single versus multi planet systems are drawn from different distributions. Our work improves upon prior studies that were conducted early in the Kepler mission. We have a much larger data set which enables us to perform statistical tests of typical system architectures for subsets of the data sorted by planet size, orbital period and the number of known planets.