Ways that our Solar System helps us understand the formation of other planetary systems and ways that it doesn't |
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| Authors: | George W Wetherill |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington D.C., USA |
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| Abstract: | Models of planetary formation can be tested by comparison of their ability to predict features of our Solar System in a consistent way, and then extrapolated to other hypothetical planetary systems by different choice of parameters. When this is done, it is found that the resulting systems are insensitive to direct effects of the mass of the star, but do strongly depend on the properties of the disk, principally its surface density. Major uncertainty results from lack of an adequate theoretical model that predicts the existence, size, and distribution of analogs of our Solar System, particularly the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. Nevertheless, reasons can be found for expecting that planetary systems, including those containing biologically habitable planets similar to Earth, may be abundant in the Galaxy and Universe. |
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