On the structural law of exoplanetary systems
Abstract
The major semiaxes of the planets in our Solar system obey a simple geometric progression known as the Titius-Bode law, whose physical origin remains disputed. It was recently shown that the five planets in the exoplanetary system 55 Cancri follow a similar (but not identical) progression of the form an α ebn . Here, we show that the other ten systems (υ And, Gliese 876, μ Ara, Gliese 581, KOI-730, HR 8799, Kepler-20, Kepler-33, HD 10180, and Kepler-11) currently known to harbor four or more planets also obey such a structural law. Interestingly, the parameter b is similar in all systems with values between 0.2 and 1.32. This similarity suggests that the structural law might be related to a dynamical relaxation process rather than to the physical conditions in the original proto-planetary disks.
- Publication:
-
Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics ICNAAM 2012: International Conference of Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics
- Pub Date:
- September 2012
- DOI:
- Bibcode:
- 2012AIPC.1479.2356L
- Keywords:
-
- circumstellar matter;
- extrasolar planetary motion;
- 95.10.Eg;
- 97.10.Fy;
- 97.82.Fs;
- Orbit determination and improvement;
- Circumstellar shells clouds and expanding envelopes;
- circumstellar masers;
- Substellar companions;
- planets