CRYPTOPLANET UPDATE

Robert L. Kurucz

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

     We have had several talks recently reviewing 11 years 
of exoplanet discoveries through radial velocity variations, 
or from transits, or from microlensing.  More than 200 
exoplanets have been found, including some around pulsars 
that we do not discuss here.

     My physical definition for a planet is a roughly 
spherical, self-gravitating body more massive than 10**26 g 
formed from the leftover material in a protostellar disk 
after the protostar forms.  Radiation from the protostar 
pushes the inner wall of the disk outward.  The material 
agglomerates and forms planets in radial sequence.  The outer 
planets are formed slowly by classical dynamical mechanisms 
acting in the snow zone.  Planets have dense cores because of 
agglomeration.  Planets bound around other stars were formed 
and behave like the planets in our solar system. 

     Not one of the exoplanets discovered thus far is a planet.  
They are cryptoplanets formed from matter ejected by protostars.  
When protostars have excessive infall at high latitudes, they 
partially balance angular momentum through outflow at the 
equator as they spin up.  The ejected matter is trapped in the 
magnetic torus formed between the star and the disk, like a 
tokamak.  The tokamak eventully reconnects and magnetic 
compression forms self-gravitating remnants trapped and 
compressed by a closed spherical magnetic field, spheromaks.  
Cooled spheromaks are cryptoplanets.  They orbit near the star.  
They can merge with each other or fall into the star or be 
ejected.  They can grow by accreting gas.  They have a low 
density core and abundances characteristic of the protostar.  
Their masses, radii, densities, and orbits are random, and are 
inconsistent with the parameters for planets.  They tend to 
have lower density than planets.

     More than 20 disks around protostars have been observed 
and are claimed to be pre-planetary.  In fact they are 
post-planetary.  Disks are not observable until the central 
Jupiter-orbit-size region has been cleared out and the inner 
planets have been formed out through ``Jupiter".