EAS Fall 2018 Seminar Series Presents: Dr. Gongjie Li, GA Tech School of Physics

A Song of Ice and Fire --- Dynamics of Planets Hot and Cold

The unexpected diversity of planetary systems has posed challenges to our classical understanding of planetary formation. For instance, Jupiter sized planets have been detected with short orbital periods of a few days misaligned with respect to the spin-axis of their host stars. 

I will first describe the dynamical interactions between an outer perturber and the inner planet, which naturally leads to the formation of such misaligned hot Jupiters. 

Next, I will discuss a similar dynamical process in the outer Solar System, far away from our Sun, which causes the observed clustering of extreme trans-Neptunian objects. This can constrain properties of a possible outer planet, Planet Nine, in our own Solar System.