Seminars at FGG
Architecture of planetary systems with giant planets in outer orbits
Speaker: Alessandro Ruggieri (Universita' degli Studi di Padova (Italy))
Date and time: 2023-03-29 12:30
In recent years, our knowledge about planetary systems has expanded in away that could not have been foreseen when the first exoplanet was detectedin 1995. In spite of this, today there are still several questions that we aretrying to answer. In Italy, most of the scientists working in this field coop-erate inside the GAPS team (General Architecture of Planetary Systems).In this context, we will present preliminary results obtained within the KP(Known Planets) sub-program: the aim is to investigate the influence of gi-ant planets in outer orbits on the presence and characteristics of planets incloser orbits, in particular on the possibility of hosting planets in the habit-able zone. The KP objects are characterized by the fact that they are giantplanets with periastron greater than 1 A.U. around low-activity stars forwhich only a few or low-quality data were available before the beginning ofthe GAPS project. Taking this into account, we are putting together all theavailable radial velocity measurements in the literature for these targets andperform orbital fits over a timespan of several years to determine whetherthese objects have undetected companions either in the habitable zone orbeyond the snow line. In particular, a few potential candidates with periodslonger than the already known planets have already been identified and, atthe moment, we have two papers in preparation. These results are the basisfor future work, in which we will determine the link between outer gas giantsand inner planets through statistical analysis.