Targeting Young Stars with Kepler: Planet Formation, Migration Mechanisms and the Early History of Planetary Systems

This white paper discusses a repurposed mission for the Kepler spacecraft that focusses on solving outstanding problems in planet formation and evolution by targeting the study of the hot Jupiter population of young stars. This mission can solve the question of the mode of migration of hot Jupiters, address the problem of whether Jupiters form by hot-start (gravitational instability) or cold-start (core accretion) mechanisms, and provide a wealth of data on the early stages of planetary system evolution during the active phases of stars which impact planetary habitability.

In one year of observations of three weeks dwell time per field, Kepler would increase by more than an order of magnitude the number of known hot Jupiters, which can be followed up with fast cadence observations to to search for transit timing variations and to perform asteroseismological characterization of the host stars. This mission scenario continues to operate Kepler in the photometric monitoring mode for which it was designed, and is generally flexible with regards to field selection enabling prioritization of fuel usage and attitude control constraints.

James P. Lloyd (1), Jonathan I. Lunine (1), Eric Mamajek (2), David S. Spiegel (3), Kevin R. Covey, Evgenya L. Shkolnik (4), Lucianne Walkowicz (5), Miguel Chavez, Emanuele Bertone, Jose Manuel Olmedo Aguilar (6) ((1) Cornell University, (2) University of Rochester, (3) Institute for Advanced Study, (4) Lowell Observatory, (5) Princeton University, (6) Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica)

(Submitted on 6 Sep 2013)

Comments: White Paper submitted to Call for White Papers: Soliciting Community Input for Alternate Science Investigations for the Kepler Spacecraft

Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)

Cite as: arXiv:1309.1520 [astro-ph.EP]

(or arXiv:1309.1520v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version) Submission history From: James Lloyd [v1] Fri, 6 Sep 2013 02:08:17 GMT (347kb,D)

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