Dynamics of Jupiter's Cloud Bands

Dynamics of microtubules from erythrocyte marginal bands.

Microtubules can adjust their length by the mechanism of dynamic instability, that is by switching between phases of growth and shrinkage. Thus far this phenomenon has been studied with microtubules that contain several components, that is, a mixture of tubulin isoforms, with or without a mixture of microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs), which can act as regulators of dynamic instability. Here...

Dynamics and Clustering in Locust Hopper Bands

Two Classes of Hot Jupiters

We identify two classes of transiting planet, based on their equilibrium temperatures and Safronov numbers. We examine various possible explanations for the dichotomy. It may reflect the influence of planet or planetesimal scattering in determining when planetary migration stops. Another possibility is that some planets lose more mass to evaporation than others. If this evaporation process pref...

Hot Jupiters: Lands of Plenty

In late August 2005, 80 researchers from more than 15 countries convened for a 4-day conference entitled “The Tenth Anniversary of 51 Peg b: Status and Prospects for Hot Jupiter Studies”. The meeting was held at l’Observatoire de Haute-Provence, the location of the 1.93-m telescope and ELODIE spectrograph used to discover the planetary companion to 51 Peg roughly 10 years ago. I summarize sever...

Secular Dynamics of Three-Body Systems and the Origins of Retrograde Hot Jupiters

We consider the secular-perturbation expansion of the classical Hamiltonian equations of motion for three mutually gravitating bodies, and we use the formalism to study the dynamical evolution of hierarchical three-body systems to octupole-level accuracy. Our study is partly motivated by recent observations of exoplanetary systems, which may include two giant planets strongly perturbing each ot...