Skip to main content
SearchLoginLogin or Signup

The dynamical history and current orbital constraints of a milestone ice giant planet orbiting a white dwarf

Published onAug 03, 2020
The dynamical history and current orbital constraints of a milestone ice giant planet orbiting a white dwarf

Robust evidence of an ice giant planet shedding its atmosphere around the white dwarf WD J0914+1914 represents a milestone in exoplanetary science, allowing us to finally supplement our knowledge of white dwarf minor planets and debris discs with the presence of a major planet. I will show that this planet likely underwent chaotic f-mode tidal excitation and currently either resembles a disrupted ‘Super-Puff’ whose remains reside on a circular orbit or resembles a larger or denser ice giant on a currently eccentric orbit. I will also analyse the prospects for exterior extant rocky asteroids, boulders, cobbles, and pebbles to radiatively drift inward past the planet due to the relatively high luminosity of this particularly young white dwarf, and place stability bounds on the gas disc formed from the planet's evaporated atmosphere.

Comments
0
comment
No comments here