Bradley M. S. Hansen

The Changing Face of the Extrasolar Giant Planet HD 209458b

High-resolution atmospheric flow simulations of the tidally locked extrasolar giant planet HD 209458b show large-scale spatio-temporal variability. This is in contrast to the simple, permanent day/night (i.e., hot/cold) picture. The planets global circulation is characterized by a polar vortex in motion around each pole and a banded structure corresponding to approximately three broad zonal (east-west) jets. For very strong jets, the circulation-induced temperature difference between moving hot and cold regions can reach up to ~1000 K, suggesting that atmospheric variability could be observed in the planets spectral and photometric signatures.

Stellar Pollution in the Solar Neighborhood

We study spectroscopically determined iron abundances of 642 solar-type stars to search for the signature of accreted iron-rich material. We find that the metallicity [Fe/H] of a subset of 466 main sequence stars, when plotted as a function of stellar mass, mimics the pattern seen in lithium abundances in open clusters. Using Monte Carlo models we find that, on average, these stars have accreted about 0.4 Earth masses of iron while on the main sequence. A much smaller sample of 19 stars in the Hertzsprung gap, which are slightly evolved and whose convection zones are significantly more massive, have lower average [Fe/H], and their metallicity shows no clear variation with stellar mass. These findings suggest that terrestrial-type material is common around solar type stars.

TOWARD ECLIPSE MAPPING OF HOT JUPITERS

Recent Spitzer infrared measurements of hot-Jupiter eclipses suggest that eclipse-mapping techniques could be used to spatially resolve the dayside photospheric emission of these planets using partial occultations. As a first step in this direction, we simulate ingress/egress light curves for three bright eclipsing hot Jupiters and evaluate the degree to which parameterized photospheric emission models can be distinguished from each other with repeated, noisy eclipse measurements. We find that the photometric accuracy of Spitzer is insufficient to use this tool effectively. On the other hand, the level of photospheric details that could be probed with a few JWST eclipse measurements could greatly inform hot-Jupiter atmospheric modeling efforts. A JWST program focused on nonparametric eclipse map inversions for hot Jupiters should be actively considered.

Weather variability of close-in extrasolar giant planets

Shallow-water numerical simulations show that the atmospheric circulation of the close-in extrasolar giant planet (EGP) HD 209458b is characterized by moving circumpolar vortices and few bands/jets (in contrast to ~10 bands/jets and the absence of polar vortices on cloud-top Jupiter and Saturn). The large spatial scales of moving circulation structures on HD 209458b may generate detectable variability of the planets atmospheric signatures. In this Letter, we generalize these results to other close-in EGPs, by noting that shallow-water dynamics is essentially specified by the values of the Rossby (Ro) and Burger (Bu) dimensionless numbers. The range of likely values of Ro (~10-2 to 10) and Bu (~1-200) for the atmospheric flow of known close-in EGPs indicates that their circulation should be qualitatively similar to that of HD 209458b. This results mostly from the slow rotation of these tidally synchronized planets.

On Signatures of Atmospheric Features in Thermal Phase Curves of Hot Jupiters

Turbulence is ubiquitous in solar system planetary atmospheres. In hot Jupiter atmospheres, the combination of moderately slow rotation and thick pressure scale height may result in dynamical weather structures with unusually large, planetary-size scales. Using equivalent-barotropic, turbulent circulation models, we illustrate how such structures can generate a variety of features in the thermal phase curves of hot Jupiters, including phase shifts and deviations from periodicity. Such features may have been spotted in the recent infrared phase curve of HD 189733b. Despite inherent difficulties with the interpretation of disk-integrated quantities, phase curves promise to offer unique constraints on the nature of the circulation regime present on hot Jupiters.

Secular effects of tidal damping in compact planetary systems

We describe the long-term evolution of compact systems of terrestrial planets, using a set of simulations that match the statistical properties of the observed exoplanet distribution. The evolution is driven by tidal dissipation in the planetary interiors, but the systems evolve as a whole due to secular gravitational interactions. We find that, for Earth-like dissipation levels, planetary orbits can be circularised out to periods of order 100 days, an order of magnitude larger than is possible for single planets. The resulting distribution of eccentricities is a qualitative match to that inferred from transit timing variations, with a minority of non-zero eccentricities maintained by particular secular configurations. The coupling of the tidal and secular processes enhance the inward migration of the innermost planets in these systems, and can drive them to short orbital periods. Resonant interactions of both the mean motion and secular variety are observed, although the interactions are not strong enough to drive systemic instability in most cases. However, we demonstrate that these systems can easily be driven unstable if coupled to giant planets on longer period orbits.

The circulation of dust in protoplanetary discs and the initial conditions of planet formation

We examine the consequences of a model for the circulation of solids in a protoplanetary nebula in which aerodynamic drag is counterbalanced by the recycling of material to the outer disc by a protostellar outflow or a disc wind. This population of circulating dust eventually becomes unstable to the formation of planetesimals by gravitational instability, and results in the ultimate deposition of 30--50 earth masses in planetesimals on scales R< 1 AU. Such a model may provide an appropriate justification for the approximately power law initial conditions needed to reproduce observed planetary systems by in situ assembly.

Perturbation of Compact Planetary Systems by Distant Giant Planets

We examine the effect of secular perturbations by giant planets on systems of multiple, lower mass planets orbiting Sun-like stars. We simulate the effects of forcing both eccentricity and inclination, separately and together. We compare our results to the statistics of the observed Kepler data and examine whether these results can be used to explain the observed excess of single transiting planets. We cannot explain the observed excess by pumping only inclination without driving most systems over the edge of dynamical instability. Thus, we expect the underlying planetary population for systems with a single transitting planet to contain an intrinsically low multiplicity population. We can explain the Kepler statistics and occurrence rates for R< 2 Rearth planets with a perturber population consistent with that inferred from radial velocity surveys, but require too many giant planets if we wish to explain all planets with R < 4 Rearth. These numbers can be brought into agreement if we posit the existence of an equivalent size population of planets below the RV detection limit (of characteristic mass 0.1 Mjupiter). This population would need to be dynamically hot to produce sufficiently strong perturbations and would leave the imprint of high obliquities amongst the surviving planets. Thus, an extensive sample of obliquities for low mass planets can help to indicate the presence of such a population. (...) Some of our simulations also produce planetary systems with planets that survive in the habitable zone but have no planets interior to them -- much as in the case of our Solar System. This suggests that such a configuration may not be altogether rare, but may occur around a few percent of FGK stars.

A dynamical context for the origin of Phobos and Deimos

We show that a model in which Mars grows near Earth and Venus but is then scattered out of the terrestrial region yields a natural pathway to explain the low masses of the Martian moons Phobos & Deimos. In this scenario, the last giant impact experienced by Mars is followed by an extended period (tens to hundreds of Myr) of close passages by other planetary embryos. These close passages perturb and dynamically heat any system of forming satellites left over by the giant impact and can substantially reduce the mass in the satellite system (sometimes to zero). The close passage of massive perturbing bodies also offers the opportunity to capture small objects by three-body scattering. Both mechanisms lead to low mass moon systems with a substantially collisional history.