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Earth-sized planet formation around late M dwarfs
Image Credit: Matsumoto, Gu, et al., 2020
Earth-sized planet formation around late M dwarfs
Numerical simulations of the time evolution of orbital radii of protoplanets, i.e., their dynamical histories. The top panel is the case for protoplanets around a 1 solar mass star, and the bottom panel is that for a 0.056 solar mass star. Around low mass stars, protoplanets experienced more violent dynamical evolution, which even caused ejections of protoplanets.
Recent observations have found the Earth-sized planets around late M dwarfs, which are about 0.1 times of solar-mass stars. These planets bring us a new question: Are their formation processes similar to Earth-sized planets around 1 solar mass stars? We consider the formation of Earth-sized planets in the following two stages: the formation of protoplanets (Lin, Y-C, Matsumoto, Gu, submitted) and the dynamical evolution of protoplanets (Matsumoto, Gu, et al., 2020). Our studies suggest that Earth-sized planets around low-mass stars are formed via the different path and more violent dynamical history.