1 minute read
College of Arts & Sciences
Nicholas DeFilippis
College of Computing & Informatics
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Computer Science, Mathematics
Joseph Glaser Co-Mentor
The Effect of Close Stellar Encounters on Planetary Stability
In 2017, astronomers discovered seven potentially habitable planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST 1. Interestingly, they all orbited very close to their star, less than a tenth of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Stars like TRAPPIST 1 form in star clusters, gravitationally bound clumps of stars that form from giant clouds of hydrogen-rich interstellar gas. Stars in clusters frequently have close encounters, which can potentially disrupt existing planetary systems. Because the TRAPPIST 1 system is so compact, however, it might be less vulnerable to these stellar encounters. To answer this question, we simulated the effects of close encounters on the long-term orbital stability of planetary orbits utilizing the AMUSE software framework and the SecularMultiples integrator.
The results of this study can be used to determine how vulnerable systems like TRAPPIST 1 are to stellar perturbation. This can be used to estimate the survival probability of similar planetary systems in a typical clustered environment, allowing us to assess whether such habitable systems are a common occurrence throughout the galaxy, or if they are rare anomalies.
