Properties of the single Jovian planet population and the pursuit of Solar system analogues
Abstract
While the number of exoplanets discovered continues to increase at a rapid rate, we are still to discover any system that truly resembles the Solar system. Existing and near future surveys will likely continue this trend of rapid discovery. To see if these systems are Solar system analogues, we will need to efficiently allocate resources to carry out intensive follow-up observations. We seek to uncover the properties and trends across systems that indicate how much of the habitable zone is stable in each system to provide focus for planet hunters. We study the dynamics of all known single Jovian planetary systems to assess the dynamical stability of the habitable zone around their host stars. We perform a suite of simulations of all systems where the Jovian planet will interact gravitationally with the habitable zone, and broadly classify these systems. Besides the system's mass ratio (Mpl/Mstar), the Jovian planet's semimajor axis (apl), and eccentricity (epl), we find that there are no underlying system properties which are observable that indicate the potential for planets to survive within the system's habitable zone. We use Mpl/Mstar, apl, and epl to generate a parameter space over which the unstable systems cluster, thus allowing us to predict which systems to exclude from future observational or numerical searches for habitable exoplanets. We also provide a candidate list of 20 systems that have completely stable habitable zones and Jovian planets orbiting beyond the habitable zone as potential first-order Solar system analogues.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- July 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/sty868
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1804.06547
- Bibcode:
- 2018MNRAS.477.3646A
- Keywords:
-
- astrobiology;
- methods: numerical;
- planets and satellites: dynamical evolution and stability;
- planets and satellites: general;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 14 pages, 10 figures