Daniel Fabrycky (UC Santa Cruz)

Planetary Systems from Kelpler

The Kepler space mission has released 4 months of data on all targets, as well as a series of papers on statistical results of transiting exoplanets. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the great abundance of candidate multiple-planet systems; out of 997 targets with a candidate transiting exoplanet, 170 of them hosted multiple candidates. I describe the dynamics (stability, transit timing variations) and architecture (resonances, inclinations) of these new planetary systems. Dynamics allows us to confirm that some of these systems are indeed planetary (Kepler-9, Kepler-11), and continued monitoring of these and other systems (the ultra-compact KOI-500, the multi-resonant KOI-730) will challenge and refine theories of the formation of planetary systems.