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The Demographics of Rocky Free-floating Planets and their Detectability by WFIRST

  • Authors: Thomas Barclay, Elisa V. Quintana, Sean N. Raymond, and Matthew T. Penny

2017 The Astrophysical Journal 841 86.

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 3.

For the simulations with giant planets, the types of bodies that are ejected are shown here. The upper panel shows the number of bodies ejected per logarithmic time bin, and the lower panel shows the mass ejected on the same timescale. Embryos (large bodies) are shown in green and are characterized by early ejections. Planetesimals are shown in blue and show an ejection timescale that matches the embryo ejection time, but has a longer tail. Fragments are the product of collisions and are ejected at later times (red), presumably because they are reaccreted relatively quickly while the planets are still growing, whereas fragments that are created late face fewer encounters and larger perturbations.

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