In class, we have seen some of the ways in which the known extrasolar planetary
ID: 3163208 • Letter: I
Question
In class, we have seen some of the ways in which the known extrasolar planetary systems are different from our own. To further explore the similarities and differences, the plot below shows the distribution of orbital eccentricities of known exoplanets. In the solar system, the orbits of the eight major planets are all of fairly low eccentricity Mercury's orbit has an eccentricity of 0.2 and all the rest have eccentricities of 0.1 or less. Briefly comment on the similarities and/or differences with our planetary system.Explanation / Answer
From the plot we can infer that the large number of expolanets discovered have quite similar eccentricities. However there are appreceable number of exoplanets which have higher eccentricies but are bound to their parent star in highly elliptical orbits.
However the most astonishing thing which we can infer is that there might be very very small number of planets that move in parabolic orbits and hyperbolic orbits. In contrast to our solar system these exoplanets are extrasolar (exoplanets) are special as in our solar system all the planest are bound to Sun in elleptical orbits.
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