An Unexpected Planet Population: How Did Super-Earths Acquire Their Currently Observed Properties?

意想不到的行星人口：超级地球如何获得目前观测到的特性？

• 批准号: 1501440
• 负责人: Angie Wolfgang
• 金额: $ 8.9万
• 依托单位: Wolfgang Angie
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-10-01 至 2018-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1501440&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Unexpected; Planet; Population; How; Did

Angie Wolfgang is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at The Pennsylvania State University. She will be studying extrasolar planets that are up to four times larger than Earth and that orbit their stars faster than Mercury orbits the Sun. No such planets exist in our Solar System, yet they are extremely common, so it is not well understood how they formed. Thankfully, the Kepler Mission provides thousands of such planets to analyze. Wolfgang aims to better understand the characteristics and possible histories of these planets by adopting a big-picture approach which incorporates the available yet incomplete information about each. In particular, she will combine physical models of different evolutionary processes with a sophisticated population-wide statistical framework to identify the most probable ways that these planets came to have their current compositions and orbits. For her education efforts, Wolfgang will develop and implement interactive, hands-on activities for a multicultural community of Penn State freshmen who are interested in pursuing careers in science and engineering. Because these activities more genuinely reflect the process of scientific inquiry and discovery than most college laboratory assignments and coursework, these students will gain valuable experience with the skills needed to do cutting-edge research and will begin to develop confidence and an identity as a scientist.The Kepler Mission has demonstrated that sub-Neptune-sized planets are ubiquitous in our Galaxy, yet it is a challenge to understand their compositional structure and to explain their close-in orbits. Progress on these and other topics in planet formation and evolution theory has been challenged by large measurement uncertainties as well as significant detection biases and selection effects in the detected Kepler population. Wolfgang will meet this need for a more data-driven approach by coupling a sophisticated hierarchical Bayesian framework to physical models and theoretical simulations of important evolutionary processes. In particular, she will investigate the compositional and orbital evolution of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes, quantifying the degree to which photoevaporation and Kozai-Lidov oscillations have affected these planets' properties since the dispersal of their protoplanetary disks. In doing so, Wolfgang will be able to supply robust end conditions to planet formation theory and accelerate theoretical understanding of the dominant processes during planet formation. Wolfgang will mentor female astrophysics undergraduate and graduate students, advise undergraduate research projects, serve as an instructor for the Penn State Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers, and implement inquiry-based activities to encourage the students in these programs - who often are members of minority groups underrepresented in the sciences - to develop scientific thinking skills and an identity as a scientist.

安吉·沃尔夫冈（Angie Wolfgang）被授予NSF天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，以在宾夕法尼亚州立大学进行研究和教育计划。 她将研究高达地球四倍的极性行星，其恒星比太阳的汞轨道快。 我们的太阳系中没有这样的行星，但是它们非常普遍，因此尚不清楚它们的形成方式。 值得庆幸的是，开普勒任务提供了数千个这样的行星进行分析。沃尔夫冈（Wolfgang）旨在通过采用大型方法来更好地了解这些行星的特征和可能的历史，该方法结合了有关每个行星的可用信息。 特别是，她将将不同进化过程的物理模型与整个人口统计框架相结合，以确定这些行星具有当前的组成和轨道的最可能方式。 为了教育工作，沃尔夫冈将为有兴趣从事科学和工程职业感兴趣的宾夕法尼亚州新生的多元文化社区开发和实施互动，实践活动。 因为这些活动比大多数大学实验室任务和课程更为真正地反映了科学探究和发现的过程，所以这些学生将获得有价值的经验，从进行尖端研究所需的技能，并将开始发展自信和作为科学家的身份。开普勒任务已经证明了Sub-Neptune size size Planets在我们的Galaxy中无处不在，以了解他们的挑战或构成他们的构成和构成的构成和构成的构成和构成的构成和构成，并且能够构成他们的立场。 这些行星形成和进化论的这些主题的进展受到了大量测量不确定性以及明显的检测偏见和检测到的开普勒人群中的选择效应的挑战。 Wolfgang将通过将复杂的层次贝叶斯框架与物理模型和重要进化过程的理论模拟耦合，从而满足对更多数据驱动方法的需求。 特别是，她将研究超收获和亚核的组成和轨道演化，以量化光蒸发和Kozai-Lidov振荡的程度，因为自居住的原始磁盘偏见以来，这些行星的特性就影响了这些行星的性质。 这样一来，沃尔夫冈将能够为行星形成理论提供强大的最终条件，并加速对行星形成过程中主要过程的理论理解。 沃尔夫冈（Wolfgang）将指导女性天体物理学的本科生和研究生，为本科研究项目提供建议，担任宾夕法尼亚州立暑期学校的教师，专业的天文学家统计学，并实施基于询问的活动来鼓励这些课程中的学生 - 他们通常是科学领域中少数群体的成员 - 对科学思维技能和科学家的认同和科学家的身份良好。