Announcements of Opportunity
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SURF@JPL: Announcements of Opportunity
Announcements of Opportunity are posted by JPL technical staff for the SURF@JPL program. Each AO indicates whether or not it is open to non-Caltech students. If an AO is NOT open to non-Caltech students, please DO NOT contact the mentor.
Announcements of Opportunity are posted as they are received. Please check back regularly for new AO submissions!
**Students applying for JPL projects should complete a SURF@JPL application instead of a "regular" SURF application.
**Students pursuing opportunities at JPL must be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents.
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| Project: |
Quantifying planet formation mechanisms by comparing simulated and observed planetary systems
(JPL AO No. 14101)
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| Disciplines: | Astronomy/Astrophysics, Planetary Science | ||||||||
| Mentor: |
Yasuhiro Hasegawa,
(JPL),
Yasuhiro.Hasegawa@jpl.nasa.gov, |
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| Background: | The rapid increase of observed exoplanets revolutionizes our understanding of planet formation. One famous, astonishing result is that small-sized planets whose radii are larger than 1 Earth radius and smaller than 4 Earth radii are dominant in the currently observed population. These planets generally reside in multi-planet systems. Characterizing such systems is challenging as the number of parameters (e.g., radius, orbital period, eccentricity) increases as the number of planets in the systems increases. This project attempts to resolve this issue, using the so-called statistical measures that are the physical quantities devised to facilitate characterization of multi-planet systems. | ||||||||
| Description: |
The objective of the project is to constrain formation mechanisms of planetary systems, by directly comparing simulation results and observed exoplanet population. The project will be divided into three tasks. Task 1 is to apply observational biases to simulated planetary systems, using the exoplanet observation simulator. This is needed as observed systems suffer from various observational biases. The simulation results will be provided by Dr. Hasegawa, which are the outcome of detailed N-body simulation. Task 2 is to compute the statistical measures (e.g., mass concentration, orbital spacing, and angular momentum deficit) of both simulated and observed systems. Hundreds of planetary systems will be taken into account. Task 3 is to compare the resulting values of the statistical measures between simulated and observed systems. This comparison will enable determination of the dominant formation mechanisms (e.g., planetesimal accretion vs pebble accretion). The participant will work on the above tasks under the supervision of Drs. Hasegawa, Hu, and other exoplanet scientists in Astrophysics and Space Sciences section at JPL. |
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| Student Requirements: |
Taking courses of physics, introductory astronomy, and computational sciences at the undergrad level or higher is strongly preferred, although not required. Previous research experience and strong motivation are highly taken into account. |
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| Location / Safety: | Project building and/or room locations: . Student will need special safety training: . | ||||||||
| Programs: |
This AO can be done under the following programs:
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