For the 14th meeting the astronomy twitter journal club planned to discuss the paper “Elemental abundance differences in the 16 Cygni binary system: a signature of gas giant planet formation?” (Ramirez et al. 2011). Here’s our (very) brief background post, and the full transcript of the meeting can be found here.
There were only a few people taking part in the meeting, so the discussion was somewhat limited. However, a few points did come up:
Could metal depletion be a new way to infer the presence of a planet? – @astronomyjc
Problem seems to be that gas giant planet hosts tend to be metal rich. Metal rich stars that form planets being slightly less metal rich than those that don’t doesn’t seem like a viable id – @wikimir
Does that mean that 16 Cyg B is unusual for showing a depletion? – @astronomyjc
No, still metal-rich compared to solar. B just slightly depleted compared to A – @wikimir
So the conclusion of the paper isn’t a new way to find planets, more an insight into how they might form – @astronomyjc
That’s how I would interpret it. Although hard to concentrate with a 7-yr old climbing all over me – @wikimir
The meeting ended with a suggestion:
I think next week we should have a meta-journal-club & discuss journal club itself. What works, what doesn’t etc – @astronomyjc
Sounds sensible. This may have just been an anomaly though. – @wikimir
The first rule of #astrojc is not to talk about #astrojc
But seriously, that sounds like a good idea. – @lukedones
and an announcement!
The topic for next week’s #astroJC discussion is…..#astrojc! What works, what doesn’t, suggestions for improvement – all feedback welcome! – @astronomyjc
