Linking star and planet formation

Andrew Winter

Tuesday December 1st, 15:30

Star formation environment can play a key role in the formation and evolution of exoplanets. The vast majority of known exoplanetary systems that have been discovered are older than 1 Gyr, longer than the time-scale for star formation and open cluster dispersal. However, the formation environment may leave imprints on the spatial and kinematic distribution of stars for several Gyr. Following this principle, we demonstrate that old (1-4.5 Gyr) exoplanetary systems within overdensities in position-velocity space, characteristic of co-moving groups, exhibit distinct properties to those at low densities. I discuss how the mechanisms in high density star formation environments can alter the formation and evolution of exoplanets, and conclude that the study of exoplanets is incomplete without considering the physics of star formation.