Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0609253

From: Sean Raymond [view email]

Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 20:59:19 GMT (257kb)

Exotic Earths: Forming Habitable Worlds with Giant Planet Migration

Authors: Sean N. Raymond (Colorado), Avi M. Mandell (Penn State/NASA Goddard), Steinn Sigurdsson (Penn State)

Comments: 13 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Resolution of one figure has been degraded. For full-resolution images, see this http URL

Journal-ref: Science, 313, 1413 (2006)

Close-in giant planets (e.g. ``Hot Jupiters'') are thought to form far from their host stars and migrate inward, through the terrestrial planet zone, via torques with a massive gaseous disk. Here we simulate terrestrial planet growth during and after giant planet migration. Several-Earth mass planets also form interior to the migrating Jovian planet, analogous to recently-discovered ``Hot Earths''. Very water-rich, Earth-mass planets form from surviving material outside the giant planet's orbit, often in the Habitable Zone and with low orbital eccentricities.

More than a third of the known systems of giant planets may harbor Earth-like planets.

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0609253