Giant Planets Near and Far (to/from their Host Star)

Abstract: Current observations overwhelmingly indicate that, in the innermost regions of planetary systems, exoplanets smaller than Neptune are at least an order of magnitude more common than gas giant exoplanets. But at larger orbital separations comparable to those of the Solar System planets, the picture is less clear. Gas giants do appear to be more frequent further out from the host star, at distances closer to those where we expect these planets to form, but we don’t yet understand how they may be related to the sparse but conspicuous Hot Jupiter population. Meanwhile, we are almost completely blind to small planets, even at separations similar to that of the Earth. In this talk, I will present results from our search for planets orbiting at increasingly larger distances from the host star using observations from TESS, NASA’s latest exoplanet hunter, and a slew of ground-based telescopes. These results include a Hot Jupiter precursor system, and a Warm Jupiter system that challenges our understanding of giant planet formation and migration. I will also motivate the need for a large, statistical ensemble of giant exoplanets in intermediate and large orbits, which will be critical for addressing population-level questions surrounding their origins, evolution and impact on the overall architecture of their systems.