Stellar clustering shapes the architecture of planetary systems.

ABSTRACT: Planet formation is generally described in terms of a system containing the host star and a protoplanetary disk^1-3, of which the internal properties (for example, mass and metallicity) determine the properties of the resulting planetary system⁴. However, (proto)planetary systems are predicted^5,6 and observed^7,8 to be affected by the spatially clustered stellar formation environment, through either dynamical star-star interactions or external photoevaporation by nearby massive stars⁹. It is challenging to quantify how the architecture of planetary sysems is affected by these environmental processes, because stellar groups spatially disperse within less than a billion years¹⁰, well below the ages of most known exoplanets. Here

SUBMITTER: Winter AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7116760 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature