Planetary Systems: from Plutos to Jupiters

行星系统：从冥王星到木星

• 批准号: 261952-2012
• 负责人: Wu, Yanqin
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=571184
• 关键词: Planetary; Systems; Plutos; Jupiters

Our solar system contains a healthy ecosystem of bodies, including a multitude of dwarf planets (like Pluto), a handful of Earth-like solid planets, and a similar number of giant planets. It is natural to wonder about the origin of all these planets. Over the past two decades, the number of planets that we can study have increased from a mere 8 to thousands. The observations of extra-solar debris disks also disclose the presence of dwarf planets around other stars. A new framework for planet formation is called for, to explain the astounding diversity as well as the emergent universality observed in these systems. We propose a theoretical research program to answer the following questions: How do a planetary system, emerging out of the gaseous disk that disappears after a few million years, manage to maintain their stability billions of years? What organize them into their observed peaceful coexistence? Orbits of our terrestial planets are chaotic, but, fortunately, with a stability lifetime comparable to the solar system lifetime. Who orders that? Is this also true for other planetary systems? Do majority of planetary systems look at all like our solar system? We will also study the Kuiper belt region to address these questions: How do Pluto and other Kuiper belt objects form in our solar system? Many stars have debris disks orders of of magnitude brighter than our own Kuiper belt. Why is ours so anemic? Are solid materials in these bright disks forming into Earth-like or even Neptune-like planets? Or is planet formation in these regions stalled by stirring by sibling giant planets? Answers to these questions provide us with important pieces to unravel the great mystery of how planets arise. Our study is a part of the human endeavour of trying to find our place in the cosmos.

我们的太阳系包含一个健康的天体生态系统，包括大量的矮行星（如冥王星），少数类地固体行星和类似数量的巨行星。想知道所有这些行星的起源是很自然的。在过去的二十年里，我们可以研究的行星数量已经从区区8个增加到数千个。对太阳系外碎片盘的观测也揭示了其他恒星周围存在矮行星。人们需要一个新的行星形成框架，来解释在这些系统中观察到的惊人的多样性和新兴的普遍性。