Orbital Evolution of the Circumbinary Planet Kepler-16 b

Overview

The orbital evolution of circumbinary planets, which varies as the host stars positions change.

Date	07/24/18
Author	David Fleming
Modules	BINARY
Approx. runtime	24 seconds

The orbital evolution of Kepler-16 b, a circumbinary planet, is shown in this example using the semi-analytic model of Leung & Lee (2013), see their Fig. 5. The orbit is non-Keplerian due to the changing positions of the host stars.

To run this example

python makeplot.py <pdf | png>

Expected output

Orbital evolution of circumbinary planet Kepler-16b according to VPLanet’s BINARY module. Perturbations from the central binary force orbital eccentricity and inclination oscillations for the planet (top left and right panels, respectively) and cause appreciable precession of the longitudes of the periapse and ascending node (bottom left and right panels, respectively).