Constraining the Mass, Age, and Orbital Architecture of HR 8799 Planetary System

Details Constraining the Mass, Age, and Orbital Architecture of HR 8799 Planetary System Constraining the Mass, Age, and Orbital Architecture of HR 8799 Planetary System

Jan 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21911004h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #110.04

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

The planetary system of HR 8799 represents a unique astrophysical laboratory in the sense that it is the only system for which direct images of multiple planets are currently available. The age of this system is critical to understanding how its planets formed and in calibrating the age-luminosity relationship for sub-stellar objects. The masses and orbital architecture of these planets (in particular their orbital inclinations) are also crucial in determining the most viable mechanism for the formation of these bodies. Current estimates suggest that the age of HR 8799 system is between 30 and 160 Myr with an orbital inclination ranging from 0° to 30°. This uncertainty in the age and orbital inclination, combined with the recent release of additional astrometric data, prompted us to examine the plausibility of the proposed orbital architecture of this system. We have carried out over 1.5 million simulations of the orbital stability of the four planets of HR 8799 for planetary masses ranging 7 to 10 Jupiter-masses and orbital inclinations ranging from 0° to 30°. Results of our simulations impose strong constraints on the orbital architecture of this system and indicate that the longest lifetimes of the planets at 0°, 13°, and 18° are less than 30 Myr. This finding implies that at these angles, the system of HR8799 is young and its planetary masses are smaller than 7-10-10-10 Jupiter-masses. Among all our models, the one with a 30° inclination has the longest lifetime of 122 Myr suggesting that at this inclination, an older system would be permitted with higher mass planets. We present the details of our study and discuss the implications of the results for constraining the mass and inclination of the system as well as possible models of its formation.

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