No Arabic abstract
We have simulated encounters between planetary systems and single stars in various clustered environments. This allows us to estimate the fraction of systems liberated, the velocity distribution of the liberated planets, and the separation and eccentricity distributions of the surviving bound systems. Our results indicate that, for an initial distribution of orbits that is flat in log space and extends out to 50AU, 50% of the available planets can be liberated in a globular cluster, 25% in an open cluster, and less than 10% in a young cluster. These fractions are reduced to 25%, 12% and 2% if the initial population extends only to 20AU. Furthermore, these free-floating planets can be retained for longer than a crossing time only in a massive globular cluster. It is therefore difficult to see how planets, which by definition form in a disc around a young star, could be subsequently liberated to form a significant population of free floating substellar objects in a cluster.
The mass and distance functions of free-floating planets (FFPs) would give major insights into the formation and evolution of planetary systems, including any systematic differences between those in the disk and bulge. We show that the only way to measure the mass and distance of individual FFPs over a broad range of distances is to observe them simultaneously from two observatories separated by $Dsim {cal O}(0.01,AU)$ (to measure their microlens parallax $pi_{rm E}$) and to focus on the finite-source point-lens (FSPL) events (which yield the Einstein radius $theta_{rm E}$). By combining the existing KMTNet 3-telescope observatory with a 0.3m $4,{rm deg}^2$ telescope at L2, of order 130 such measurements could be made over four years, down to about $Msim 6,M_oplus$ for bulge FFPs and $Msim 0.7,M_oplus$ for disk FFPs. The same experiment would return masses and distances for many bound planetary systems. A more ambitious experiment, with two 0.5m satellites (one at L2 and the other nearer Earth) and similar camera layout but in the infrared, could measure masses and distances of sub-Moon mass objects, and thereby probe (and distinguish between) genuine sub-Moon FFPs and sub-Moon ``dwarf planets in exo-Kuiper Belts and exo-Oort Clouds.
Genomic complexity can be used as a clock with which the moment in which life originated can be measured. Some authors who have studied this problem have come to the conclusion that it is not possible that terrestrial life originated here and that, in reality, life originated giga-years ago, before the solar system existed. If we accept this conclusion there is no other option than to admit that panspermia is something viable.The goal of this study is to propose a viable hypothesis for the transport of SLF from one planetary system to another. During the formation period of a planetary system giant planets can eject planets the size of the Earth, or larger, turning them into free-floating planets in interstellar space. These free-floating planets have also been called free floaters. If a free floater, which has developed life, enters a lifeless planetary system, it can seed the worlds of this system with SLF dragged by the stellar wind from one planet to another or by great impacts on the free planet. To support this hypothesis, I calculate the probability that one free floater reaches the planets zone of a planetary system, and also it was calculated the time it remains within the planetary zone in order to see if there is enough time to seed the host system.The probability of a free floater in the galaxy, within the region of the Sun, entering the planet zone of a system is 2.8x10-4, i.e., that {sim}3 of 10,000 free planets manage to enter some planetary system. At the galactocentric distance from the Sun I calculated that there are 21,495 free floaters floating around the galactic center. Hence, 6 free-floating planets manage to enter in planetary systems every galaxy rotation. Since the galaxy has rotated 54 times since its formation, then, {sim} 324 free floaters have entered some planetary system at the galactocentric distance of the Sun.
Planet formation theories predict the existence of free-floating planets that have been ejected from their parent systems. Although they emit little or no light, they can be detected during gravitational microlensing events. Microlensing events caused by rogue planets are characterized by very short timescales $t_{rm E}$ (typically below two days) and small angular Einstein radii $theta_{rm E}$ (up to several uas). Here we present the discovery and characterization of two ultra-short microlensing events identified in data from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) survey, which may have been caused by free-floating or wide-orbit planets. OGLE-2012-BLG-1323 is one of the shortest events discovered thus far ($t_{rm E}$=0.155 +/- 0.005 d, $theta_{rm E}$=2.37 +/- 0.10 uas) and was caused by an Earth-mass object in the Galactic disk or a Neptune-mass planet in the Galactic bulge. OGLE-2017-BLG-0560 ($t_{rm E}$=0.905 +/- 0.005 d, $theta_{rm E}$=38.7 +/- 1.6 uas) was caused by a Jupiter-mass planet in the Galactic disk or a brown dwarf in the bulge. We rule out stellar companions up to a distance of 6.0 and 3.9 au, respectively. We suggest that the lensing objects, whether located on very wide orbits or free-floating, may originate from the same physical mechanism. Although the sample of ultrashort microlensing events is small, these detections are consistent with low-mass wide-orbit or unbound planets being more common than stars in the Milky Way.
We describe the results of a very deep imaging survey of the Trapezium Cluster in the IJH bands, using the UKIRT high resolution camera UFTI. Approximately 32% of the 515 point sources detected are brown dwarf candidates, including several free floating objects with masses below the Deuterium burning (planetary) threshold at 0.013 solar masses, which are detectable because of their extreme youth. We have confidence that almost all the sources detected are cluster members, since foreground contamination is minimal in the 33 arcmin^2 area surveyed and the dense backdrop of OMC-1 obscures all background stars at these wavelengths. Extinction is calculated from the (J-H)colours, permitting accurate luminosity estimates and temperatures are derived from the dereddened (I-J) colours. There is some evidence for a cut-off in the luminosity function below the level corresponding to several Jupiter masses, which may represent the bottom end of the IMF. Since star formation is complete in the Trapezium this limit could have wide significance, if confirmed. However, it could well be an effect of the dispersal of the molecular cloud by the central O-type stars, a process whose timescale will vary between star formation regions.
A free-floating planet is a planetary-mass object that orbits around a non-stellar massive object (e.g. a brown dwarf) or around the Galactic Center. The presence of exomoons orbiting free-floating planets has been theoretically predicted by several models. Under specific conditions, these moons are able to retain an atmosphere capable of ensuring the long-term thermal stability of liquid water on their surface. We model this environment with a one-dimensional radiative-convective code coupled to a gas-phase chemical network including cosmic rays and ion-neutral reactions. We find that, under specific conditions and assuming stable orbital parameters over time, liquid water can be formed on the surface of the exomoon. The final amount of water for an Earth-mass exomonoon is smaller than the amount of water in Earth oceans, but enough to host the potential development of primordial life. The chemical equilibrium time-scale is controlled by cosmic rays, the main ionization driver in our model of the exomoon atmosphere.