Planetary Systems: from Plutos to Jupiters

行星系统：从冥王星到木星

• 批准号: 261952-2012
• 负责人: Wu, Yanqin
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=571184
• 关键词: Planetary; Systems; Plutos; Jupiters

Our solar system contains a healthy ecosystem of bodies, including a multitude of dwarf planets (like Pluto), a handful of Earth-like solid planets, and a similar number of giant planets. It is natural to wonder about the origin of all these planets. Over the past two decades, the number of planets that we can study have increased from a mere 8 to thousands. The observations of extra-solar debris disks also disclose the presence of dwarf planets around other stars. A new framework for planet formation is called for, to explain the astounding diversity as well as the emergent universality observed in these systems. We propose a theoretical research program to answer the following questions: How do a planetary system, emerging out of the gaseous disk that disappears after a few million years, manage to maintain their stability billions of years? What organize them into their observed peaceful coexistence? Orbits of our terrestial planets are chaotic, but, fortunately, with a stability lifetime comparable to the solar system lifetime. Who orders that? Is this also true for other planetary systems? Do majority of planetary systems look at all like our solar system? We will also study the Kuiper belt region to address these questions: How do Pluto and other Kuiper belt objects form in our solar system? Many stars have debris disks orders of of magnitude brighter than our own Kuiper belt. Why is ours so anemic? Are solid materials in these bright disks forming into Earth-like or even Neptune-like planets? Or is planet formation in these regions stalled by stirring by sibling giant planets? Answers to these questions provide us with important pieces to unravel the great mystery of how planets arise. Our study is a part of the human endeavour of trying to find our place in the cosmos.

我们的太阳系包含一个健康的天体生态系统，包括大量的矮行星（如冥王星）、一些类地固体行星以及类似数量的巨行星。 人们很自然地想知道所有这些行星的起源。 在过去的二十年里，我们可以研究的行星数量已经从仅仅八颗增加到数千颗。对太阳系外碎片盘的观测也揭示了其他恒星周围存在矮行星。我们需要一个新的行星形成框架，以解释这些系统中令人震惊的多样性以及所观察到的普遍性。 我们提出了一个理论研究计划来回答以下问题：一个从几百万年后消失的气态盘中出现的行星系统如何能够维持数十亿年的稳定性？是什么让他们和平共处？ 我们的类地行星的轨道是混乱的，但幸运的是，其稳定寿命与太阳系的寿命相当。谁命令的？ 对于其他行星系统来说也是如此吗？ 大多数行星系统看起来都像我们的太阳系吗？ 我们还将研究柯伊伯带区域来解决以下问题：冥王星和其他柯伊伯带天体是如何在我们的太阳系中形成的？许多恒星的碎片盘比我们自己的柯伊伯带亮几个数量级。为什么我们的这么贫血？ 这些明亮圆盘中的固体物质是否正在形成类似地球甚至类似海王星的行星？ 或者这些区域的行星形成是否因兄弟巨行星的搅拌而停滞？ 这些问题的答案为我们提供了解开行星如何产生的巨大谜团的重要线索。我们的研究是人类努力寻找我们在宇宙中的位置的一部分。