Description:

Abstract: I will introduce the mid-sized and growing list of planetary systems with 2-body and 3-body resonances among the planets. Kepler-223 was among the first, Trappist-1 is the most famous, and transit and Doppler surveys are adding to this elite family of complex systems at about 1 per year. Secondly, I will explain the scientific pay-offs awaiting the discovery of exomoons, and some recent explorations of their dynamics. For both of these architectures, tidal dissipation should observably shape the distribution: Will chains remain in resonance or spread out? Will exomoons stay bound or get ripped off? Measuring and putting upper limits on that dissipation gives us our first chance to constrain the material properties inside sub-Neptune planets.

Speaker: Daniel Fabrycky, Associate Professor, University of Chicago

Host: Professor Giacomo Fragione