Failed Stars and Super Planets A Report Based on the January 1998 Workshop on Substellar-Mass Objects (1998) / Chapter Skim
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6 Findings and Future Needs
6 Findings and Future Needs
Pages 53-61
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From page 53... ...
Thus, the most compelling issues concerning SMOs as objects of intrinsic interest are the following: · Devising detection strategies to increase the population of known SMOs beyond tile several hundred expected from the DENIS and 2MASS surveys and thus,increase the extent of SMO parameter space accessible for study; and · Performing spectroscopic and other diagnostic studies to characterize individual, nearby SMOs. Detection Strategies The exciting results from ongoing programs designed to detect SMOs lead to a natural desire to extend this work to fully exploit the ultimate capabilities of current detection techniques.
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From page 54... ...
and the Kepler photometric mission, both in the planning stages, represent efforts in this direction. This evolutionary path will lead to a steady increase in the extent of the SMO parameter space accessible for study.
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From page 55... ...
The evident ability of SMOs to undergo orbital migration from their point of formation to almost the edge of the parent star challenges our understanding of disk-planet-star dynamics. Furthermore, the history of SMOs through their formation, migration, and long-term orbital states is a principal consideration in assessing the likelihood of the presence of terrestrial planets in a given system, as well as the small-body environment to which those planets have been subjected through time and the current detectability of such~planets through the haze of a zodiacal dust population.
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From page 56... ...
Yet clouds play key roles in the atmospheric energy balance, surface brightness, and compositional variation of the atmosphere. The realistic incorporation of cloud formation into SMO models, as well as other processes that are spatially or temporally variable or not in local thermodynamic equilibrium (a standard current assumption)
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From page 57... ...
Testing Models of the Formation of SMOs As is the case for the modeling of SMO atmospheres and interiors, simulations of the formation of SMOs rely on sophisticated theory enabled by increasingly powerful computational tools. Hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations of disk processes, including fragmentation and two-stage planet formation, are computationally intensive and benefit from insights leading to more efficient and accurate protocols for solving the equations.
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From page 58... ...
Different configurations of giant planets will produce different evolutions of small-bods populations in other planetary systems, with perhaps different results for the habitability of terrestrial planets in those systems. Furthermore, the dust loading in other planetary systems as affected by giant-planet perturbations on the cometary supply sources, has important implications for the detectability of terrestrial planets using the approach of space-based optical/infrared interferometry.
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From page 59... ...
they do represent unique probes of galactic structure. Observations of microlensing events, a technique developed originally to search for missing mass in the form of massive compact halo objects, have particular promise for probing the mass function of brown dwarfs and understanding the composition of the galactic halo.
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From page 60... ...
Relatively modest assistance could have a major impact on the productivity of efforts to measure the brown dwarf mass function via observations of microlensing events. A potentially major structural problem could have a damaging impact on microlensing observations: the two largest surveys (MACHO and EROS)
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From page 61... ...
This investment should be in addition to the funding NASA is already providing for technological development of future large projects such as the Space Interferometry Mission and the Terrestrial Planet Finder. The funding must be flexible and peer-reviewed in recognition of the nature of the activities, which are distributed principal-investigator-based projects to observe and mode]
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