An ISSI International Team analysed multi-planet systems and found that they split into two distinct families born around different types of stars. The study, published in Nature Astronomy, shows for the first time that the host star’s properties determine the architecture and dynamical evolution of the entire planetary system.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Analysing a sample of three hundred of the best-characterised planetary systems among the over one thousand known in the Milky Way, the ISSI International Team has discovered that the multi-planet systems identified so far belong to two distinct “families”. The study, published today in Nature Astronomy, demonstrates for the first time a true “genetic link” between the host star and its planets that shapes the birth, dynamical evolution, and future stability of the entire planetary system.
Webinar with Mike Wong (University of California, USA)
The Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program with Hubble was started in 2014 with the goal of studying time-domain phenomena in Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, with Saturn added in 2018 once the Cassini spacecraft was de-orbited. Key areas of study are heat transport and climate circulation, atmospheric structure and evolution, composition, the formation of clouds and hazes, impact processes, and impactor populations.
