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Department of Physics
Departmental Colloquium: Konopinski Lecture Series (joint with Astronomy)
October 13, 2004
4:00 pm in Swain West 119
Tea at 3:30 pm in SW113
Speaker: Geoff Marcy, University of California Berkeley Title: The Properties of Planetary Systems
Abstract:
About 7% of nearby stars harbor Jupiter and Saturn-sized planets with orbits smaller than that of Mars.
The planet mass distribution rises rapidly toward smaller masses, with the lowest detectable masses being
near that of Neptune. Multiple planets are common, and many reside in dynamical resonances which, together
with high orbital eccentricities, suggest that gravitational interactions between planet-planet and
planet-disk shape the final architectures of planetary systems. The occurrence of planets correlates with
the abundance of heavy elements in the host star.
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