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Thursday, November 15, 2012

Scientists have explained the preference of exoplanets


Since the planets in the solar system formed from the same cloud of gas and dust that the star itself, until recently, it was thought that the plane of their orbits must coincide with the plane of rotation of the star. However, beginning in 2008, astronomers began to find more and more exoplanets, which were in highly inclined orbits and even reverse (counter-rotating) with respect to its star.


This odd situation orbits astrophysics attempted to explain the gravitational influence of other planets, or even clash with them.

In a new article Konstantin Batygin shows that the inclined orbits could be formed in stellar systems and natural way, without the "interplanetary gravitational conflicts." This might be the case when the star around which the planet, the star has an external partner. During the migration from the periphery to the center due to gravity is the curvature of the outer star exoplanet motion, resulting in its orbit is tilted.

The new model is better than any other explains detection on curved orbits of hot Jupiters. These gas giants are rotating at a very close distance from its star, formed on the periphery of the system, and then migrate to the center.

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