Terrestrial planets, debris discs and giant planet instability

Debris disks as signposts of terrestrial planet formation

Simulations of terrestrial planet formation with giant planet scattering going on. Turns out that scattering is bad for the terrestrial planets. Prediction based on current knowledge of giant planet distribution is that terrestrials should be more common at ~0.3 AU than at 1 AU, and it looks like the solar system may be something of an unusual case as it combines a rich terrestrial planet system with low dust emission.

And now the sequel...

Debris disks as signposts of terrestrial planet formation. II Dependence of exoplanet architectures on giant planet and disk properties

Herschel imaging of 61 Vir: implications for the prevalence of debris in low-mass planetary systems
The disk at 61 Vir is roughly edge-on, and a new disk is reported at HD 20794. Far higher rate of debris disks at systems with low-mass planets.

arXiv:1206.4190v1 [astro-ph.EP]: Debris from terrestrial planet formation: the Moon-forming collision

Simulations of the debris from the moon-forming impact. Combining this with detectability and observations of the frequency of stars with warm debris discs suggests that the fraction of stars that form terrestrial planets is less than ~10% under the model that formation of terrestrial planets goes through a giant impacts stage.

Do missing Jupiters mean massive comet belts?
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/SEMVDXDQZ9H_0.html

Planetary systems that lack Jovian planets may have denser kuiper belts. GJ 581 and 61 Vir cited as examples.

This seems to be nicely in-line with the theoretical predictions, which seems to be something of a rarity in the history of exoplanetary discoveries

I knew we had a thread about that. I'll merge it.