Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1997-10-10
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
12 pages, 6 figures. To be submitted to Icarus
Scientific paper
10.1006/icar.1998.5999
Simple ``solar systems'' are generated with planetary orbital radii r distributed uniformly random in log(r) between 0.2 and 50 AU. A conservative stability criterion is imposed by requiring that adjacent planets are separated by a minimum distance of k Hill radii, for values of k ranging from 1 to 8. Least-squares fits of these systems to generalized Bode laws are performed, and compared to the fit of our own Solar System. We find that this stability criterion, and other ``radius-exclusion'' laws, generally produce approximately geometrically spaced planets that fit a Titius-Bode law about as well as our own Solar System. We then allow the random systems the same exceptions that have historically been applied to our own Solar System. Namely, one gap may be inserted, similar to the gap between Mars and Jupiter, and up to 3 planets may be ``ignored'', similar to how some forms of Bode's law ignore Mercury, Neptune, and Pluto. With these particular exceptions, we find that our Solar System fits significantly better than the random ones. However, we believe that this choice of exceptions, designed specifically to give our own Solar System a better fit, gives it an unfair advantage that would be lost if other exception rules were used. We conclude that the significance of Bode's law is simply that stable planetary systems tend to be regularly spaced; this conclusion could be strengthened by the use of more stringent methods of rejecting unstable solar systems, such as long-term orbit integrations.
Hayes Wayne
Tremaine Scott
No associations
LandOfFree
Fitting random stable solar systems to Titius-Bode laws does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Fitting random stable solar systems to Titius-Bode laws, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Fitting random stable solar systems to Titius-Bode laws will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-111982