* Astronomy

Title: Stability of the Kepler-11 System and its Origin
Author: Nikhil Mahajan (Toronto), Yanqin Wu (Toronto)

A significant fraction of Kepler systems are closely-packed, largely coplanar and circular. We study the stability of a 6-planet system, Kepler-11, to gain insights on the dynamics and formation history of such systems. Using a technique called `frequency maps' as fast indicators for long-term stability, we explore the stability of Kepler-11 system by analyzing the neighbourhood space around its orbital parameters. Frequency maps provide a visual representation of chaos and stability, and their dependence on orbital parameters. We find that the current system is stable, but lies within a few percent of several dynamically dangerous 2-body mean-motion resonances. Planet eccentricities are restricted below a small value, ~0.04, for long-term stability, but planet masses can be more than twice their reported values (thus, allowing for the possibility of mass-loss by past photoevaporation). Based on our frequency maps, we speculate on the origin for instability in closely-packed systems. We then proceed to investigate how the system can have been assembled. The stability constraints on Kepler-11 (mainly, eccentricity constraints) suggest that if the system were assembled in-situ, a dissipation mechanism must have been at work to neutralize eccentricity excitation. On the other hand, if migration was responsible for assembling the planets, there has to be little differential migration among the planets, to avoid them either getting trapped into mean motion resonances, or crashing into each other.

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Title: A dynamical analysis of the Kepler-11 planetary system
Authors: Cezary Migaszewski, Mariusz Slonina, Krzysztof Gozdziewski

The Kepler-11 star hosts at least six transiting super-Earth planets detected through the precision photometric observations of the KEPLER mission (Lissauer et al.). In this paper, we re-analyse the available KEPLER data, using the direct N-body approach rather than an indirect TTV method in the discovery paper. The orbital modelling in the realm of the direct approach relies on the whole data set, rather than the times of mid-transits only. Most of the results in the original paper are confirmed and extended. We constrained the mass of the outermost planet g to less than 30 Earth masses. The mutual inclinations between orbits b and c as well as between orbits d and e are determined with a good precision, in the range of [1,5] degrees. Having several solutions to four qualitative orbital models of the Kepler-11 system, we analyse its global dynamics with the help of dynamical maps. They reveal very complex structure of the phase space with narrow regions of regular motion. The dynamics are governed by a dense net of three- and four-body mean motion resonances, forming the Arnold web. Overlapping of these resonances is a main source of instability. We found that the Kepler-11 system may be long-term stable only in particular multiple resonant configurations with small relative inclinations. The mass-radius data derived for all companions reveal a clear anti-correlation between the mean density of the planets with their distance from the star. It may reflect the formation and early evolution history of the system.

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Title: A Closely-Packed System of Low-Mass, Low-Density Planets Transiting Kepler-11
Authors: Jack J. Lissauer, Daniel C. Fabrycky, Eric B. Ford, William J. Borucki, Francois Fressin, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Jerome A. Orosz, Jason F. Rowe, Guillermo Torres, William F. Welsh, Natalie M. Batalha, Stephen T. Bryson, Lars A. Buchhave, Douglas A. Caldwell, Joshua A. Carter, David Charbonneau, Jessie L. Christiansen, William D. Cochran, Jean-Michel Desert, Edward W. Dunham, Michael N. Fanelli, Jonathan J. Fortney, Thomas N. Gautier III, John C. Geary, Ronald L. Gilliland, Michael R. Haas, Jennifer R. Hall, Matthew J. Holman, David G. Koch, David W. Latham, Eric Lopez, Sean McCauliff, Neil Miller, Robert C. Morehead, Elisa V. Quintana, Darin Ragozzine, Dimitar Sasselov, Donald R. Short, Jason H. Steffen

When an extrasolar planet passes in front of its star (transits), its radius can be measured from the decrease in starlight and its orbital period from the time between transits. Multiple planets transiting the same star reveal more: period ratios determine stability and dynamics, mutual gravitational interactions reflect planet masses and orbital shapes, and the fraction of transiting planets observed as multiples has implications for the planarity of planetary systems. But few stars have more than one known transiting planet, and none has more than three. Here we report Kepler spacecraft observations of a single Sun-like star that reveal six transiting planets, five with orbital periods between 10 and 47 days plus a sixth one with a longer period. The five inner planets are among the smallest whose masses and sizes have both been measured, and these measurements imply substantial envelopes of light gases. The degree of coplanarity and proximity of the planetary orbits imply energy dissipation near the end of planet formation.

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NASA Finds Earth-Size Planet Candidates In Habitable Zone, Six Planet System

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Five of the potential planets are near Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of smaller, cooler stars than our sun.
Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets. Kepler also found six confirmed planets orbiting a sun-like star, Kepler-11. This is the largest group of transiting planets orbiting a single star yet discovered outside our solar system.
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