Publications by authors named "K Batygin"
Article Synopsis
- Brown dwarf companions to stars help us understand planet formation processes, but some of them are more massive than expected based on their luminosities and host star ages.
- Gliese 229 B, previously thought to be a single entity, was revealed through observations to actually be two brown dwarfs, Gliese 229 Ba and Bb, with masses of 38.1 and 34.4 Jupiter masses, respectively.
- This discovery challenges existing theories and raises questions about the formation and occurrence of binary brown dwarfs in close orbits around stars.
Jupiter's decisive role in the inner Solar System's early evolution.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
April 2015
The statistics of extrasolar planetary systems indicate that the default mode of planet formation generates planets with orbital periods shorter than 100 days and masses substantially exceeding that of the Earth. When viewed in this context, the Solar System is unusual. Here, we present simulations which show that a popular formation scenario for Jupiter and Saturn, in which Jupiter migrates inward from a > 5 astronomical units (AU) to a ≈ 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe existence of gaseous giant planets whose orbits lie close to their host stars ('hot Jupiters') can largely be accounted for by planetary migration associated with viscous evolution of proto-planetary nebulae. Recently, observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect during planetary transits have revealed that a considerable fraction of hot Jupiters are on orbits that are misaligned with respect to the spin axes of their host stars. This observation has cast doubt on the importance of disk-driven migration as a mechanism for producing hot Jupiters.
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