Understanding the Architecture of Complete Planetary Systems

了解完整行星系统的架构

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-04111
• 负责人: Lawler, Samantha
• 金额: $ 1.75万
• 依托单位: University of Regina
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=739669
• 关键词: Understanding; Architecture; Complete; Planetary; Systems

Astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets: planets orbiting stars other than our Sun. My research goal is to study in-depth some of the known exoplanet systems to understand the processes that lead to their current orbital architectures, then use that understanding to build a Planetary System Population Simulator to make statistically sound conclusions about the prevalence and importance, generally, of these formation processes for planetary systems as a whole. Most known exoplanetary systems have very different orbital architectures than our own Solar System. This is partially because exoplanets with certain characteristics (e.g. faster orbits, larger planets) are easier to find with telescopes. To compare exoplanets with our own Solar System, these observational biases need to be accounted for. This proposal will lead to training for several HQP in Canada, and will benefit the astronomy community by providing a "de-biased" distribution of complete planetary systems. This research goal will be met through several studies: The Gemini Planet Imager will take images of several dusty planetary systems where recent catastrophic collisions are believed to have taken place between asteroids or even planets. These images will be complimented by computer simulations studying the stability of close-in planets and asteroid belts. Some theorize that our Solar System could have started out with a set of close-in planets that have since been destroyed through collisions, so these dusty systems could be similar to earlier stages of our Solar System's evolution. The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope will be used to discover more objects in the Kuiper Belt, which is made up of thousands of small, icy trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) that orbit beyond Neptune. The orbits of discovered TNOs best match simulations of the early Solar System where the planets migrate outwards to their orbits today. I'll focus on TNOs with orbits that are inclined to the orbital plane of the Solar System planets, as these are most strongly affected by planetary migration, and by theorized distant planets like "Planet 9." The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will start taking data within the next 3 years, and is expected to discover thousands more TNOs as it images the entire southern hemisphere sky every 3-4 days. Significant modelling will be required to measure the orbits of newly discovered TNOs, and software will need to be developed to effectively comb through the many Terabytes of data produced each night. The Planetary System Population Simulator is software that will statistically produce realistic distributions of exoplanetary systems based on known observational biases and real observed systems. The end-result of this software will allow statistical comparison of our Solar System's planetary architecture with the thousands of exoplanetary system architectures discovered to date, and will place our Solar System's formation and architecture in broader context.

天文学家已经发现了数千颗系外行星：围绕太阳以外的恒星运行的行星。我的研究目标是深入研究一些已知的系外行星系统，以了解导致其当前轨道结构的过程，然后使用这种理解来构建行星系统人口模拟器，以得出关于这些行星系统形成过程的普遍性和重要性的统计合理结论。大多数已知的系外行星系统的轨道结构与我们的太阳系非常不同。这部分是因为具有某些特征的系外行星（例如更快的轨道，更大的行星）更容易用望远镜找到。为了将系外行星与我们自己的太阳系进行比较，需要考虑这些观测偏差。这一建议将导致在加拿大培训几名HQP，并将通过提供完整行星系统的“去偏”分布而使天文学界受益。这一研究目标将通过几项研究来实现：双子座行星成像仪将拍摄几个尘埃行星系统的图像，据信这些系统最近发生了小行星甚至行星之间的灾难性碰撞。这些图像将得到计算机模拟的补充，研究近距离行星和小行星带的稳定性。一些理论认为，我们的太阳系可能是从一系列近距离行星开始的，这些行星后来因碰撞而被摧毁，因此这些尘埃系统可能与我们太阳系演化的早期阶段相似。加拿大-法国-夏威夷望远镜将被用来发现柯伊伯带中的更多物体，柯伊伯带由数千个小的、冰冷的海王星外天体（TNO）组成，它们的轨道在海王星之外。发现的TNO的轨道最符合早期太阳系的模拟，行星向外迁移到今天的轨道。我将重点关注那些轨道与太阳系行星轨道平面倾斜的TNO，因为它们受到行星迁移和理论上的遥远行星（如“行星9”）的影响最大。大型综合巡天望远镜将在未来3年内开始采集数据，预计每3-4天对整个南半球天空进行一次成像，将发现数千个TNO。测量新发现的TNO的轨道需要大量的建模，并且需要开发软件来有效地梳理每晚产生的许多TB数据。行星系统人口模拟器是一种软件，它将根据已知的观测偏差和真实的观测系统，以统计方式产生系外行星系统的真实分布。该软件的最终结果将允许对我们太阳系的行星结构与迄今为止发现的数千个系外行星系统结构进行统计比较，并将我们太阳系的形成和结构置于更广泛的背景下。