Rebecca Martin, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has received a three-year, $297,116 grant from the NASA Exoplanets Research Program to study planet formation in binary star systems.
About half of observed exoplanets are estimated to be in binary star systems rather than around a single star like our Sun. Planet formation in binary star systems may be very different to planet formation around a single star since there are additional forces on the disc in which the planets form, and on the planets themselves. Martin will model the evolution of discs in binary systems and their interaction with planets that form. Their goal is to understand why many of the observed exoplanets have large eccentricities and large inclinations to the spin of their star. This is in contrast to the solar system in which the planets have low eccentricity and low orbital inclination.
With the money, Dr. Martin intends to hire a postdoc to be at UNLV and also have a graduate student work on the project.
Working with Dr. Martin is Steve Lubow from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
