Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Participants
- Preface
- Extrasolar planets: Past, present, and future
- The quest for very low-mass planets
- Extrasolar planets: A galactic perspective
- The Kepler Mission: Design, expected science results, opportunities to participate
- Observations of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets
- Planetary migration
- Observational constraints on dust disk lifetimes: Implications for planet formation
- The evolution of gas in disks
- Planet formation
- Core accretion—gas capture model for gas giant planet formation
- Gravitational instabilities in protoplanetary disks
- Conference summary: The quest for new worlds
Extrasolar planets: A galactic perspective
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Participants
- Preface
- Extrasolar planets: Past, present, and future
- The quest for very low-mass planets
- Extrasolar planets: A galactic perspective
- The Kepler Mission: Design, expected science results, opportunities to participate
- Observations of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets
- Planetary migration
- Observational constraints on dust disk lifetimes: Implications for planet formation
- The evolution of gas in disks
- Planet formation
- Core accretion—gas capture model for gas giant planet formation
- Gravitational instabilities in protoplanetary disks
- Conference summary: The quest for new worlds
Summary
The host stars of extrasolar planets (ESPs) tend to be metal rich. We have examined other properties of these stars in search of systematic trends that might distinguish exoplanet hosts from the hoi polloi of the Galactic disk; we find no evidence for such trends among the present sample. The α-element abundance ratios show that several ESP hosts are likely to be members of the thick disk population, indicating that planet formation has occurred throughout the full lifetime of the Galactic disk. We briefly consider the radial metallicity gradient and age-metallicity relation of the Galactic disk, and complete a back-of-the-envelope estimate of the likely number of solar-type stars with planetary companions with 6 < R < 10 kpc.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Decade of Extrasolar Planets around Normal StarsProceedings of the Space Telescope Science Institute Symposium, held in Baltimore, Maryland May 2–5, 2005, pp. 26 - 35Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008