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DrGirlfriend
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What is so special about the Solar System?
- - Sun has no companion
- - Planets are non-resonate (resonance observed in other star systems)
- - Packed (no space to add extra planets)
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Properties of the Solar System
- Sun:
- - typical mass, typical metal content (not H/He)
- - mass dominates solar system
- - heavy elements mostly in sun
- - no companion
- Gas Giants:
- - mostly H/He
- - not solar composition
- - more heavy elements than sun
- Resonance
- - planets not resonate
- where i, j are integers
- Packed
- - between planets, bodies exist where orbits are stable
- - no room to add extra planets
- Asteroid Belt
- - Kirkwood Gaps (resonance with Jupiter)
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Minimum Mass Solar Nebula Procedure
Estimates minimum gas needed to form planets
1.) Estimate heavy elements (Fe) to get mass
2.) Calculate area of disk (annulus extending halfway to neighboring planets)
3.)
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Detection Techniques
- - Doppler shifts
- - Transits
- - Microlensing
- - Direct imaging
- - Astrometry
- - Pulsar timing
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Direct Imaging
- - gives info about composition
- - resolve light from planet as separate source (fraction of starlight reflected by planet)
-gives planet's brightness (very faint compared to star)
- Separating Planet from from Star:
- - dust, atmosphere, telescope size, diffraction = limitations
- - Diffraction Limit:
D = diam of tele
- light that planet absorbs is re-radiated as Thermal radiation (T~300K for Earth)
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Transits
- drop in stellar flux is observed
- - look for periodic dips due to planet transits (f = 0.01 for J-like planets)(f = 1-0.99)
- - on ground, precision sufficient to find gas giants, but atmosphere prevents detection of terrestrial planets
- Probability of Observation:

- lower a = higher P (good way to find planets close to star)
- Observables:
- - Depth of Transit

- Period of Orbit
- Stellar Parameters (a,  )
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Star Formation
- - Class O:
- - collapse and formation of protostar
- - protostar shrouded by surrounding dust
- - Class I:
- - star and disk have formed (possibly jet)
- - continued in-fall (cloud & core still accreting)
- - Class II:
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- star and disk only
- - Class III:
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- disk has dispersed - - pre-main-sequence star
- - weak-lined T-Tauri star
- - Disk Lifetime:
- 1.) Measure disk fraction in young stars
- 2.) Date stars in clusters
- - usually

- - less than 10 Myr to form gas giants
- - final formation of terrestrial planets must have occured in a gas-free environment
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