What is the probability that a star of a given spectral type will have planets?

Question

There is a lot of new data from the various extrasolar planet projects including NASA's Kepler mission on extra-solar planets. Based on our current data what is the probability that a star of each of the main spectral types (O, B, A, etc) will have a planetary system?

Answer 1

Hello,

While I understand what you mean by the spectral types, I am going to simplify my response for others to read. I also will not provide calculations or numbers, but just general information.

Class O stars are going to be the giants. These burn bright and hot. Usually they are blue or white. These will most likely only end up with only proto planets forming around them for two reasons:

1) They explode after 10million years.

2)They are so massive, they use up almost 100% of all the available material in their formation.

Class B, your medium sized. These will probably have several planets forming around them as they have enough gravity to keep other stars from stealing or ejecting the planets from B class star (remember most stars are born in pairs, one larger and one smaller).

Class A. Small. Red. Live for up to 1 trillion years. These typically do have 1-2 planets according to recent observations. Typically the planets follow this description: 1 Giant "hot jupiter" very close to the star. And 1 small rocky planet far from the star.

Hope it helps.