Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011ess.....2.0201h&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, ESS meeting #2, #2.01
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Watershed discoveries from the Kepler mission have shaped our understanding of the properties of small planets. Mass and radius measurements of individual planets show that their densities vary by an order of magnitude, owing to great diversity in composition and atmospheric content. The ensemble of small planets discovered by Kepler have a radius distribution that rises steeply with decreasing size. Close-in sub-Neptune-size planets are an order of magnitude more common than hot Jupiters. However, the detailed structure of the planet radius distribution remains partially veiled by poorly known stellar host properties from the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC). Correlations of planet properties with stellar properties are similarly out of focus or unknown. My talk will concentrate on initial results from the California Kepler Survey (CKS) that provide precise stellar parameters from LTE modeling of high-resolution Keck-HIRES spectra of Kepler planet hosts. With this catalog of stellar properties, we expect the detailed structure of the planet radius distribution to emerge, including deviations from a power-law model that suggest common planet sizes and preferred formation scenarios. This improved catalog will also shed light on the variations of planets occurrence with orbital distance and stellar mass/metallicity, offering important clues for the formation of small worlds.
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