Architecture of Kepler’s Multi-Transiting Planet Systems

Poster Number

14C

Lead Author Major

Physics/Applied Math

Lead Author Status

Senior

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

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Apr 27th, 12:30 PM Apr 27th, 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.