Dynamical Characteristics and Orbital Stability of Extrasolar Planetary Systems: Poster presented at the 'Extrasolare Planeten' conference/workshop held at DLR Adlershof

The discovery of Extrasolar Planetary Systems (EPS) and their diverse structure has raised question about the general applicability of the existing formation scenarios for the Solar System and on other stellar systems. Basic orbital properties (semi-major axis (a),
eccentricity (e) and projected planetary mass (msin i)), are only known for a limited number of EPS but some are quite different from the Solar System, with Jupiter sized planets in close and eccentric orbits around the central star. Even if the discovery of such system are mainly a consequence of observational selection effects, their nature indicates a different evolution history compared to the Solar System.

The time evolution of extrasolar planetary orbits can be studied by monitoring the time
variation in orbital Kepler elements using n-body integration shemes. Basically, n-body
integrators solves the equation of motion by numerically propagate the system, given an
initial start configuration. Thus, following a given EPS over a substantial part of its lifetime,
one obtains longterm variations in the orbital elements and insight into the complex nature
of planetary system evolutionary mechanisms and put firm constraints on the orbital space they can occupy