内日冕的绿线强度分布研究

日冕是太阳大气活动的关键区域,是日地空间天气的源头.受观测限制,对日冕低层大气等离子体结构和磁场状态的研究非常欠缺,国际上对于可见光波段日冕低层大气的亮度分层研究很少.利用丽江日冕仪YOGIS(Yunnan Green-line Imaging System)的日冕绿线(Fe_ⅩⅣ5303?)观测资料,对内日冕区域(1.03R_☉-1.25R_☉,R_☉表示太阳半径)亮结构及其中冕环进行了有效的强度衰减分析.对亮结构的强度在太阳径向高度上进行了指数衰减拟合,比较这些拟合结果发现所得到的静态内冕环的衰减指数在一固定值附近.然后将比较明显的冕环提取出来,通过对不同高度的绿线强度进行指数拟合,得出的衰减指数与亮结构中也比较相近,这对进一步研究日冕中的各项物理参数演化提供了参考.     

Detecting the glint of starlight on the oceans of distant planets

We propose that astronomers will be eventually be able to discriminate between extrasolar Earth-like planets with surface oceans and those without using the shape of phase light curves in the visible and near-IR spectrum. We model the visible light curves of planets having Earth-like surfaces, seasons, and optically-thin atmospheres with idealized diffuse-scattering clouds. We show that planets partially covered by water will appear measurably brighter near crescent phase (relative to Lambertian planets) because of the efficient specular reflection (“glint”) of starlight incident on their surfaces at a highly oblique angle. Planets on orbits within 30° of edge-on orientation (50% of all planets) will show pronounced glint over a sizeable range of orbital longitudes, from quadrature to crescent, all outside the glare of their parent stars. Also, water-covered planets will appear darker than a Lambertian disk near full illumination. Finally, we show that planets with a mixed land/water surface will polarize the reflected signal by as much as 30-70%. These results suggest several new ways of directly identifying water on distant planets.     

The full set of gas giant structures: I: On the origin of planetary masses and the planetary initial mass function

Context

Current planet search programs are detecting extrasolar planets at a rate of 60 planets per year. These planets show more diverse properties than was expected.

Aims

We try to get an overview of possible gas giant (proto-) planets for a full range of orbital periods and stellar masses. This allows the prediction of the full range of possible planetary properties which might be discovered in the near future.

Methods

We calculate the purely hydrostatic structure of the envelopes of proto-planets that are embedded in protoplanetary disks for all conceivable locations: combinations of different planetesimal accretion rates, host star masses, and orbital separations. At each location all hydrostatic equilibrium solutions to the planetary structure equations are determined by variation of core mass and pressure over many orders of magnitude. For each location we analyze the distribution of planetary masses.

Results

We get a wide spectrum of core-envelope structures. However, practically all calculated proto-planets are in the planetary mass range. Furthermore, the planet masses show a characteristic bimodal, sometimes trimodal, distribution. For the first time, we identify three physical processes that are responsible for the three characteristic planet masses: self-gravity in the Hill sphere, compact objects, and a region of very low adiabatic pressure gradient in the hydrogen equation of state. Using these processes, we can explain the dependence of the characteristic masses on the planet’s location: orbital period, host star mass, and planetesimal accretion rate (luminosity). The characteristic mass caused by the self-gravity effect at close proximity to the host star is typically one Neptune mass, thus producing the so-called hot Neptunes.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that hot Jupiters with orbital period less than 64 days (the exact location of the boundary depends on stellar type and accretion rate) have quite distinct properties which we expect to be reflected in a different mass distribution of these planets when compared to the “normal” planetary population. We use our theoretical survey to produce an upper mass limit for embedded planets: the maximum embedded equilibrium mass (MEEM). This naturally explains the lack of high mass planets between 3 and 64 days orbital period.     

Planets and minor planets CCD observations with the CMT and the CMASF

CCD observations of planets and minor planets obtained while surveying the northern and southern hemispheres using the CMT on La Palma (Spain) and the CMASF at El Leoncito (Argentina) are presented.Also presented is the possibility of observing some Solar System bodies with these instruments in the future.     

Obliquity variations of terrestrial planets in habitable zones

We have investigated obliquity variations of possible terrestrial planets in habitable zones (HZs) perturbed by a giant planet(s) in extrasolar planetary systems. All the extrasolar planets so far discovered are inferred to be jovian-type gas giants. However, terrestrial planets could also exist in extrasolar planetary systems. In order for life, in particular for land-based life, to evolve and survive on a possible terrestrial planet in an HZ, small obliquity variations of the planet may be required in addition to its orbital stability, because large obliquity variations would cause significant climate change. It is known that large obliquity variations are caused by spin-orbit resonances where the precession frequency of the planet's spin nearly coincides with one of the precession frequencies of the ascending node of the planet's orbit. Using analytical expressions, we evaluated the obliquity variations of terrestrial planets with prograde spins in HZs. We found that the obliquity of terrestrial planets suffers large variations when the giant planet's orbit is separated by several Hill radii from an edge of the HZ, in which the orbits of the terrestrial planets in the HZ are marginally stable. Applying these results to the known extrasolar planetary systems, we found that about half of these systems can have terrestrial planets with small obliquity variations (smaller than 10°) over their entire HZs. However, the systems with both small obliquity variations and stable orbits in their HZs are only 1/5 of known systems. Most such systems are comprised of short-period giant planets. If additional planets are found in the known planetary systems, they generally tend to enhance the obliquity variations. On the other hand, if a large/close satellite exists, it significantly enhances the precession rate of the spin axis of a terrestrial planet and is likely to reduce the obliquity variations of the planet. Moreover, if a terrestrial planet is in a retrograde spin state, the spin-orbit resonance does not occur. Retrograde spin, or a large/close satellite might be essential for land-based life to survive on a terrestrial planet in an HZ.     

The origin and nature of Neptune-like planets orbiting close to solar type stars

The sample of known exoplanets is strongly biased to masses larger than the ones of the giant gaseous planets of the Solar System. Recently, the discovery of two extrasolar planets of considerably lower masses around the nearby Stars GJ 436 and ρ Cancri was reported. They are like our outermost icy giants, Uranus and Neptune, but in contrast, these new planets are orbiting at only some hundredth of the Earth-Sun distance from their host stars, raising several new questions about their origin and constitution. Here we report numerical simulations of planetary accretion that show, for the first time through N-body integrations that the formation of compact systems of Neptune-like planets close to the hosts stars could be a common by-product of planetary formation. We found a regime of planetary accretion, in which orbital migration accumulates protoplanets in a narrow region around the inner edge of the nebula, where they collide each other giving rise to Neptune-like planets. Our results suggest that, if a protoplanetary solar environment is common in the Galaxy, the discovery of a vast population of this sort of ‘hot cores’ should be expected in the near future.     

The Effect of Tidal Interaction with a Gas Disk on Formation of Terrestrial Planets

We have performed N-body simulation on final accretion stage of terrestrial planets, including the effect of damping of eccentricity and inclination caused by tidal interaction with a remnant gas disk. As a result of runway and oligarchic accretion, about 20 Mars-sized protoplanets would be formed in nearly circular orbits with orbital separation of several to ten Hill radius. The orbits of the protoplanets would be eventually destabilized by long-term mutual gravity and/or secular resonance of giant gaseous planets. The protoplanets would coalesce with each other to form terrestrial planets through the orbital crossing. Previous N-body simulations, however, showed that the final eccentricities of planets are around 0.1, which are about 10 times higher than the present eccentricities of Earth and Venus. The obtained high eccentricities are the remnant of orbital crossing. We included the effect of eccentricity damping caused by gravitational interaction with disk gas as a drag force (“gravitational drag”) and carried out N-body simulation of accretion of protoplanets. We start with 15 protoplanets with 0.2M⊕ and integrate the orbits for 10⁷ years, which is consistent with the observationally inferred disk lifetime (in some runs, we start with 30 protoplanets with 0.1M⊕). In most runs, the damping time scale, which is equivalent to the strength of the drag force, is kept constant throughout each run in order to clarify the effects of the damping. We found that the planets' final mass, spatial distribution, and eccentricities depend on the damping time scale. If the damping time scale for a 0.2M⊕ mass planet at 1 AU is longer than 10⁸ years, planets grow to Earth's size, but the final eccentricities are too high as in gas-free cases. If it is shorter than 10⁶ years, the eccentricities of the protoplanets cannot be pumped up, resulting in not enough orbital crossing to make Earth-sized planets. Small planets with low eccentricities are formed with small orbital separation. On the other hand, if it is between 10⁶ and 10⁸ years, which may correspond to a mostly depleted disk (0.01-0.1% of surface density of the minimum mass model), some protoplanets can grow to about the size of Earth and Venus, and the eccentricities of such surviving planets can be diminished within the disk lifetime. Furthermore, in innermost and outermost regions in the same system, we often find planets with smaller size and larger eccentricities too, which could be analogous to Mars and Mercury. This is partly because the gravitational drag is less effective for smaller mass planets, and partly due to the “edge effect,” which means the innermost and outermost planets tend to remain without collision. We also carried out several runs with time-dependent drag force according to depletion of a gas disk. In these runs, we used exponential decay model with e-folding time of 3×10⁶ years. The orbits of protoplanets are stablized by the eccentricity damping in the early time. When disk surface density decays to ?1% of the minimum mass disk model, the damping force is no longer strong enough to inhibit the increase of the eccentricity by distant perturbations among protoplanets so that the orbital crossing starts. In this disk decay model, a gas disk with 10⁻⁴-10⁻³ times the minimum mass model still remains after the orbital crossing and accretional events, which is enough to damp the eccentricities of the Earth-sized planets to the order of 0.01. Using these results, we discuss a possible scenario for the last stage of terrestrial planet formation.     

On the internal energy source of the large planets

Based on spacecraft observations of the giant planets we call attention to an apparent regular mass-luminosity relation for the large planets (giant planets plus Earth). It can provide important clues and constraints on the question of their energy source, including various relevant theories and their difficulties. We describe in some detail a new thermonuclear reaction mechanism, valid for plasma fusions at both super—high and low temperatures, and including the original thermonuclear mechanism as a particular case. It can explain not only the internal energy souce of the large planets, but also many anomalous fusion phenomena observed in the laboratory and in astronomical bodies. Although these appear in various guises, their basic principle is the same, that is, they can all be understood in terms of the new mechanism.     

Giant planet migration through the action of disk torques and planet-planet scattering

This paper presents a parametric study of giant planet migration through the combined action of disk torques and planet-planet scattering. The torques exerted on planets during Type II migration in circumstellar disks readily decrease the semi-major axes a, whereas scattering between planets increases the orbital eccentricities ?. This paper presents a parametric exploration of the possible parameter space for this migration scenario using two (initial) planetary mass distributions and a range of values for the time scale of eccentricity damping (due to the disk). For each class of systems, many realizations of the simulations are performed in order to determine the distributions of the resulting orbital elements of the surviving planets; this paper presents the results of ∼8500 numerical experiments. Our goal is to study the physics of this particular migration mechanism and to test it against observations of extrasolar planets. The action of disk torques and planet-planet scattering results in a distribution of final orbital elements that fills the a-? plane, in rough agreement with the orbital elements of observed extrasolar planets. In addition to specifying the orbital elements, we characterize this migration mechanism by finding the percentages of ejected and accreted planets, the number of collisions, the dependence of outcomes on planetary masses, the time spent in 2:1 and 3:1 resonances, and the effects of the planetary IMF. We also determine the distribution of inclination angles of surviving planets and the distribution of ejection speeds for exiled planets.     

Tidal interactions and disruptions of giant planets on highly eccentric orbits

We calculate the evolution of planets undergoing a strong tidal encounter using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), for a range of periastron separations. We find that outside the Roche limit, the evolution of the planet is well-described by the standard model of linear, non-radial, adiabatic oscillations. If the planet passes within the Roche limit at periastron, however, mass can be stripped from it, but in no case do we find enough energy transferred to the planet to lead to complete disruption. In light of the three new extrasolar planets discovered with periods shorter than two days, we argue that the shortest-period cases observed in the period-mass relation may be explained by a model whereby planets undergo strong tidal encounters with stars, after either being scattered by dynamical interactions into highly eccentric orbits, or tidally captured from nearly parabolic orbits. Although this scenario does provide a natural explanation for the edge found for planets at twice the Roche limit, it does not explain how such planets will survive the inevitable expansion that results from energy injection during tidal circularization.     

The effects of metallicity and grain growth and settling on the early evolution of gaseous protoplanets

Giant protoplanets formed by gravitational instability in the outer regions of circumstellar disks go through an early phase of quasi-static contraction during which radii are large (∼1 AU) and internal temperatures are low (<2000 K). The main source of opacity in these objects is dust grains. We investigate two problems involving the effect of opacity on the evolution of isolated, non-accreting planets of 3, 5, and 7 M_J. First, we pick three different overall metallicities for the planet and simply scale the opacity accordingly. We show that higher metallicity results in slower contraction as a result of higher opacity. It is found that the pre-collapse time scale is proportional to the metallicity. In this scenario, survival of giant planets formed by gravitational instability is predicted to be more likely around low-metallicity stars, since they evolve to the point of collapse to small size on shorter time scales. But metal-rich planets, as a result of longer contraction times, have the best opportunity to capture planetesimals and form heavy-element cores. Second, we investigate the effects of opacity reduction as a result of grain growth and settling, for the same three planetary masses and for three different values of overall metallicity. When these processes are included, the pre-collapse time scale is found to be of order 1000 years for the three masses, significantly shorter than the time scale calculated without these effects. In this case the time scale is found to be relatively insensitive to planetary mass and composition. However, the effects of planetary rotation and accretion of gas and dust, which could increase the timescale, are not included in the calculation. The short time scale we find would preclude metal enrichment by planetesimal capture, as well as heavy-element core formation, over a large range of planetary masses and metallicities.     

基于无量纲的轨道参数开展卫星性质统计研究

目前已发现了285颗围绕太阳系八大行星公转的卫星, 它们的轨道和物理性质呈现了丰富多样性. 目前为止, 几乎所有的卫星研究工作都基于单个卫星系统或者卫星群, 似乎缺少统一的研究. 提出了一个新的与行星性质无关、只与恒星半径有关的轨道参数n, 定义为以太阳半径为单位的轨道半长轴的自然对数. 不同行星的卫星的n值都存在双极分布, 绝大部分卫星在$n\gtrsim2$区间, 其次在$n\lesssim-1$区间, 位于中间区域的行星则很少. 从卫星物理参数和轨道参数与n的关系中发现, 分属六大行星的卫星有明显的共同特征. 首先, 轨道偏心率和轨道倾角偏大的卫星的n值都在3.5左右, 它们都是巨行星的不规则卫星. 其次, n值在-1和1之间的卫星绝大部分体积大、质量大、反照率高、自转速度慢. 从文献中找到11颗系外卫星候选体, 获得了它们轨道n值和卫星质量, 发现后者也是在-1< n< 1区间最大,其他区间偏小.这些统一的 规律暗示,太阳系内不同行星的卫星形成机制以及太阳系外卫星的形成机制可能一样或类似.     

大行星轨道运动与太阳黑子数的中长周期变化

本文对不同序列的太阳黑子数资料作了分析研究,计算得到了可能的太阳黑子活动的中长周期变化,并分别与由大行星轨道运动引起的日心轨道角动量变化的周期进行比较,发现二者具有比较一致的谱结构。基于本文的讨论和文[17]的结论,我们进一步认为大行星轨道运动是太阳黑子数周期性变化的可能的外部因素。     

Internal structure of massive terrestrial planets

Planetary formation models predict the existence of massive terrestrial planets and experiments are now being designed that should succeed in discovering them and measuring their masses and radii. We calculate internal structures of planets with one to ten times the mass of the Earth (Super-Earths) to obtain scaling laws for total radius, mantle thickness, core size and average density as a function of mass. We explore different compositions and obtain a scaling law of R∝M0.267-0.272 for Super-Earths. We also study a second family of planets, Super-Mercuries with masses ranging from one mercury-mass to ten mercury-masses with similar composition to the Earth's but with a larger core mass fraction. We explore the effect of surface temperature and core mass fraction on the scaling laws for these planets. The scaling law obtained for the Super-Mercuries is R∝M∼0.3.     

系外类地行星的内部结构及大气成分研究进展

系外类地行星是目前搜寻地外生命的主要目标.随着观测仪器的发展,现在已经能探测到低于10个地球质量的系外行星.该文简要回顾了系外类地行星的形成与演化,介绍了当前研究它们内部结构的模型和方法,以及由此得出的类地行星质量-半径关系.同时,对应不同的行星初始物质成分,讨论了各种可能的大气结构.最后介绍了未来的空间任务在相关方面的工作.     

太阳系探索和地外生命搜索

综述了国际上进行太阳系空间探测的现状，着重介绍了探测月球，火星，不星和外行星的意义，目的，手段和成就，择要介绍了美国宇般局，欧洲空间局，俄罗斯和日本近年来和下世纪初的空间计划，论及地外生命搜索，主要介绍了火星上水和生命搜索进展，地外生命搜索的的SETI计划及其发民菜，物理学家与生物学家有关搜索成功的可能性的争论，以及太阳系外行星系统的发现，太阳系外行星系统的发现是当代天文学最时髦的，也将是未来21世纪成果最丰富的研究领域之一，目前，已经发现了大约50个太阳系外行星系统，太阳系外行星系统的发现与地外生命搜索研究是密不可分的，这项研究近20年来发展较快，它的研究也促进了航天学，宇宙化学，天文生物学乃至哲学等其化学科的发展。     

Dynamics of Two Planets in the 3/2 Mean-motion Resonance: Application to the Planetary System of the Pulsar PSR B1257+12

This paper considers the dynamics of two planets, as the planets B and C of the pulsar PSR B1257+12, near a 3/2 mean-motion resonance. A two-degrees-of-freedom model, in the framework of the general three-body planar problem, is used and the solutions are analyzed through surfaces of section and Fourier techniques in the full phase space of the system.On the possibility of existence of a fourth planet in distant orbit, see Wolszczan et al., 2000     

Core instability models of giant planet accretion – II. Forming planetary systems

We develop a simple model for computing planetary formation based on the core instability model for the gas accretion and the oligarchic growth regime for the accretion of the solid core. In this model several planets can form simultaneously in the disc, a fact that has important implications especially for the changes in the dynamic of the planetesimals and the growth of the cores since we consider the collision between them as a source of potential growth. The type I and type II migration of the embryos and the migration of the planetesimals due to the interaction with the disc of gas are also taken into account. With this model we consider different initial conditions to generate a variety of planetary systems and analyse them statistically. We explore the effects of using different type I migration rates on the final number of planets formed per planetary system such as on the distribution of masses and semimajor axis of extrasolar planets, where we also analyse the implications of considering different gas accretion rates. A particularly interesting result is the generation of a larger population of habitable planets when the gas accretion rate and type I migration are slower.     

Status of the physics of substellar objects project

A full understanding of the properties of substellar objects is one of the major challenges facing astrophysics. Since their discovery in 1995, hundreds of brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets have been discovered. While these discoveries have enabled important comparisons with theory, observational progress has been much more rapid than the theoretical understanding of cool atmospheres. The reliable determination of mass, abundances, gravities and temperatures is not yet possible. The key problem is that substellar objects emit their observable radiation in the infrared region of the spectrum where our knowledge of atomic, molecular and line broadening data is poor. Here we report on the status of our PoSSO (Physics of SubStellar Objects) project. In order to understand brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets increasing more like those in our solar system, we are studying a wide range of processes. Here we give an update on the project and sketch an outline of atoms, molecules and processes requiring study. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)