The Origin of the Exoplanets

Abstract

We explore two ways in which objects of planetary masses can form. One is in disk systems like the solar system. The other is in dense clusters where stars and brown dwarfs form. We do not yet have the instrumental accuracy to detect multiplanet systems with masses like those in solar system; with our present technology from a distant site, only the effects of Jupiter could be detected. We show that the orbital characteristics (eccentricities and semimajor axes) of stellar, brown dwarf, and exoplanet companions of solar-type stars are all the same within our measuring accuracies and are very different than the planets in the solar system. The period ratios in multiplanet systems do not distinguish between the two models. We conclude that most of the exoplanets found to date are formed like stellar companions and not in disk systems like the solar system. This conclusion explains why metal-poor stars lack planets: because metal-poor stars lack stellar companions with short periods. The distribution of exoplanetary periods for primaries having [Fe/H]< -0.3 fits the distribution for stellar companions of metal-poor stars and not of metal-rich stars.