The tidal interaction between planets and the protoplanetary disk

The discovery of now about 20 extrasolar planets orbiting solar-type stars with properties quite different from those in our Solar System has raised many questions about the formation and evolution of planets. The tidal interaction between the planet and the surrounding disk determines the orbital properties and the mass of the planet. We have performed numerical computations of a planet embedded in a protoplanetary disk and found that for typical values of the viscosity the planet may easily grow upto ten Jupiter masses. New results on the mass evolution and the migration of the planet are presented.