Ji-Lin Zhou, Ji-Wei Xie, Hui-Gen Liu, Hui Zhang and Yi-Sui Sun
Department of Astronomy and Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics in Ministry
of Education, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China;
zhoujl@nju.edu.cn
Received 2012 July 9; accepted 2012 July 17
Abstract
With the increasing number of detected exoplanet samples, the statistical properties of planetary systems have become much clearer. In this review, we summarize the major statistical results that have been revealed mainly by radial velocity and transiting observations, and try to interpret them within the scope of the classical core-accretion scenario of planet formation, especially in the formation of different orbital architectures for planetary systems around main sequence stars. Based on the different possible formation routes for different planet systems, we tentatively classify them into three major catalogs: hot Jupiter systems, standard systems and distant giant planet systems. The standard systems can be further categorized into three sub-types under different circumstances: solar-like systems, hot Super-Earth systems, and sub- giant planet systems. We also review the theory of planet detection and formation in binary systems as well as planets in star clusters.
I’m reading this paper and if anyone’s interested in the formation of different planetary systems, I highly suggest reading this. It’s so interesting.
Filed under planet formation Forming Different Planetary Systems exoplanets astronomy astrophysics
I have been waiting for this moment for a long time.
Filed under personal 666
Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2011 and 2012 revealed two previously unknown moons of Pluto. So far, we have been calling them “P4” and “P5”, but the time has come to give them permanent names. If it were up to you, what would you choose?
By tradition, the names of Pluto’s moons come from Greek and Roman mythology, and are related to the ancient tales about Hades and the Underworld. Please pick your favorites on the ballot below.
Alternatively, if you have a great idea for a name that we have overlooked, let us know by filling out the
write-in form. If you can make a good case for it, we will add it to the list. See the
blog page for the latest info.
Ground Rules: Feel free to come back, but please do not vote more than once per day, just so everybody gets a fair chance to make their opinion known. We will take your votes and suggestions into consideration when we propose the names for P4 and P5 to the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Voting ends at
noon EST on Monday, February 25th, 2013.
Mark Showalter, for the P4/P5 Discovery Team
Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
Learn more
about the names, and then select your favorites on the ballot below.
Filed under Pluto SETI
Published 10:23am Wednesday, February 20, 2013
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (often abbreviated as CERN) and its Large Hadron Collider are a colossal use of finances, time and other resources simply to sharpen the pencil that we humans already own and use.
CERN is valid as a directionless hobby and pastime, one that leisurely whiles away the now pointless, make-busy hours of thousands of scientists, physicists and other geeks worldwide and allows numerous egos to wax wearisomely. CERN perpetuates individual and collective freedom of choice and unbridled co-creations, albeit erroneously in the presumptions underlying the current approach of inquiry because such presumptions fail to factor in God the creator who is the underlying unseen process of divine love and life.
No matter how finely one hones down their pencil, it’s still a pencil. You won’t find what is eternal and limitless in any temporal object, not even in super-fleeting, ultra tiny, super accelerated subatomic particles created through the expenditure of massive amounts of money and electrical energy.
Building bigger toys in the physical world shall always result in a pallid and unsuccessful attempt to find unseen divine principles. Divine love transformed into physical manifestations in this particular physical plane of existence can never be captured or discovered by mere mechanical contraptions nor by their size or might. It’s that simple.
The scientists at CERN are having fun. That’s good, but they will ultimately accomplish no meaningful or useful purpose.
Robert Townsend
Roscoe, Ill.
This is a joke, right?
(Source: albertleatribune.com)
Filed under CERN LHC
NASA’s SDO Observes Fast-Growing Sunspot
The bottom two black spots on the sun, known as sunspots, appeared quickly over the course of Feb. 19-20, 2013. These two sunspots are part of the same system and are over six Earths across. This image combines images from two instruments on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), which takes pictures in visible light that show sunspots and the Advanced Imaging Assembly (AIA), which took an image in the 304 Angstrom wavelength showing the lower atmosphere of the sun, which is colorized in red. Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/HMI/Goddard Space Flight Center
(Source: nasa.gov)
Filed under SDO NASA space astronomy science sunspots
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Filed under personal Meshuggah Animals as Leaders
After feeling like I’m not good enough for so long, it is a strange feeling to experience the realization of what I have become and what I have accomplished. Not to mention the potential that I have to actually become something in the future.
Once upon a time, I was a sad girl in high school who had no friends who spent her lunches in the library and skipped class because she was depressed and had to go to summer school just to get into a university. Now, here I am, a second year undergraduate student in an Astronomy and Astrophysics specialist program, taking wonderful courses, accepted for an astronomy and astrophysics summer research program, and actually capable of making something out of my life.
What a wonderful feeling to prove so many people wrong, including myself. I can’t help but wonder what they’d say if they could see me now.
Filed under personal
I’ve been contacted by a Dunlap fellow, who not only expressed an interest working with me, but apparently I am her “top student” for this year’s project. I read her email and cried immediately. This is amazing. Here’s some information on the project she supervises:
The Serpens South Cluster is a nearby cluster of embedded young stellar objects identified in the Serpens molecular cloud through mid-infrared imaging as part of the Spitzer Gould Belt Legacy Survey. Star formation in the cluster has likely only very recently begun, as many of the detected sources are extremely young. The cluster star formation rate is also very high, suggesting that many more stars will be able to form before the surrounding dense gas is removed through radiation and stellar winds.
This cluster thus offers an unusual chance to study an extremely young system before gas dispersal and stellar dynamics have dramatically altered the landscape. The student will work on analysis of a large (~ 0.5 square degree) map of ammonia (NH3) emission towards the Serpens South Cluster taken with the Green Bank Telescope. NH3 observations selectively probe the dense gas associated with the cluster, revealing the regions where stars may yet be forming. The student will gain familiarity with data cubes, spectral-line analysis, and dark cloud chemistry, and will analyse the kinematics of the gas on small- and large-scales with the goal of comparing the results to theoretical models of star cluster formation.
Filed under personal Dunlap Institute DI SURP
