Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21710306m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #103.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The population of exoplanets detected with the radial velocity method has revealed that Jupiter-size planets possess a large range in orbital eccentricity, with a characteristic eccentricity of about 0.3. This discovery has revolutionized our theories of planet formation. With the additional discovery of hundreds of exoplanet candidates by the Kepler mission, we can probe the eccentricity distribution of smaller exoplanets. Due to a near degeneracy between the eccentricity, direction of pericenter and impact parameter, transit photometry alone will not measure the orbital eccentricity for most planets discovered by Kepler. In some cases, it will be possible to measure eccentricities of individual planets thanks to complementary observations (e.g., radial velocities, transit timing variations, occultation photometry, NIR transit photometry). Even in the absence of individual eccentricities, it is possible to study the distribution of eccentricities based on the distribution of transit durations (relative to the maximum transit duration for a circular orbit). We present an early analysis of the duration distribution for planet candidates identified by the Kepler mission and discuss the implications for the eccentricity distribution. We compare results for giant and smaller planet candidates. Additionally, we identify planet candidates whose transit durations exceed the maximum transit duration for a circular orbit (which depends on the density of the host star). We consider the possibility of inaccurate stellar densities and the implications of the long-duration transit candidates for the exoplanet eccentricity distribution and its dependence on planet size.
Ford Eric B.
Kepler Science Team
Moorhead Althea
Morehead Robert
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