tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-378357358243436521.post371140228367282273..comments2024-03-28T03:18:40.051-04:00Comments on Life, Unbounded: 1 in 4Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991701536947708899noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-378357358243436521.post-54004293061774235662010-11-24T17:16:45.450-05:002010-11-24T17:16:45.450-05:00We actually did this paper for our journal club se...We actually did this paper for our journal club several weeks ago - and there were a couple questions that I'd be interested in hearing you expound on Caleb.<br /><br />They exclude M-type stars in this survey (69 stars) I'm guessing on the grounds that they're interested in constraining the sample to Sun-like stars. Isn't there potentially much to be lost by that selection considering how rich GJ 876 and 581 have been and the overall abundance of M class stars? Considering orbital architecture of those systems I can imagine their extrapolation could be effected as well. <br /><br />The other issue is whether the biases inherent in RV analysis also biases the power law they come up with - though this really gets to the main thing I'm interested in hearing about - what exactly the development of a planetary mass function would mean for the field in the near future. I understand that developing constraints and general rules for a PMF is useful even with the limited sample of exoplanets we currently have (even as Kepler and other sources being to increase that number), but what exactly will be the immediate boons of a continuously improving PMF? Would it primarily be to allow us to even further constrain survey targets or are we talking deeper understandings of planet formation and exoplanet system architecture even based upon still nascent attempts? There have already been a couple papers on a planetary mass function on arXiv and it'd be nice to see a little discussion on why it is such an exciting topic for the near future.Prabalnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-378357358243436521.post-89114515057973381362010-10-29T14:05:05.330-04:002010-10-29T14:05:05.330-04:00Right, but they extrapolate on the basis of these ...Right, but they extrapolate on the basis of these numbers and some simple physical expectations for planet formation. Obviously the realm litmus test will be to actually detect the Earth mass objects at 1 AU, but we're a hair's breadth away from that (less so with Kepler, more so with Doppler detection).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01991701536947708899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-378357358243436521.post-37962105305882567292010-10-29T12:32:03.522-04:002010-10-29T12:32:03.522-04:00Their statistics are for systems with planets with...Their statistics are for systems with planets within a 50 day orbital period. Our own solar system flunks this standard as Mercury has an orbital period of 88 days and is significantly smaller than the Earth.kurt9https://www.blogger.com/profile/02101147267959016924noreply@blogger.com