Markers of planet migration in the population of planetary cores

我们现在知道有数以千计的行星。这告诉我们，行星是常见的，足以在像太阳这样的恒星周围常见。然而，尽管行星的数量在增加，但要找到关于它们的更多细节是困难的。行星是由什么组成的，它们是如何形成和演化的，从而离开了我们所看到的行星？找出其他太阳系是如何形成的，这让我们能够把我们自己的太阳系放在一个背景下。也许我们是典型的，或者可能是独特的--这种知识改变了我们对地球和地球上生活的看法。研究其他行星如何形成的一种方法是观察它们的核心。行星核显示了它开始时所处的环境，它的组成告诉我们，在它获得气体包层之前，它开始时存在什么物质。我们仍然不知道关于木星和土星核心的任何重大细节，因为它们的气体包层挡住了核心的视线，其他星球也是如此。但是，靠近主恒星的行星接收到大量的光和能量，足以蒸发气体并揭示核心。通过发现这些行星的新种群，我想找出它们核心的主要成分，发现它们的形成是否与其他行星不同。由于太阳系中不存在如此短周期的行星，我将揭开一种新型行星演化和历史的证据。

We now know of planets numbering in the thousands. This tells us that planets are common, enough to be a usual occurrence around stars like the sun. However, despite this increasing number of planets, finding out more detail about them is difficult. What are the planets made of, and how did they form and evolve to leave the planets we see? Finding out how other solar systems formed allows us to place our own Solar System in context. Perhaps we are typical, or perhaps unique - this knowledge changes how we think about the Earth and our life upon it.One way to study how other planets form is to look at their cores. The planetary core shows the environment it began in, with its composition telling us what materials were present at its beginning, before it obtained an envelope of gas. We still do not know any great detail about the cores of Jupiter and Saturn, because their gas envelopes block the core from view, and the same is true of other worlds. But planets close to their host star receive a lot of light and energy, enough to evaporate the gas and reveal the core. By uncovering a new population of these planets, I want to find out the dominant composition of their cores, discovering if they formed differently from others. As such short period planets do not exist in the Solar System, I will be uncovering the evidence of a new type of planetary evolution and history.