Dynamical Instabilities in Extrasolar Planetary Systems Containing Two Giant Planets

Details Dynamical Instabilities in Extrasolar Planetary Systems Containing Two Giant Planets Dynamical Instabilities in Extrasolar Planetary Systems Containing Two Giant Planets

2000-10-10

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0010178v2

Icarus 150 (2001) 303-313

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

41 pages, including 15 figures; to appear in Icarus, minor revisions only

Scientific paper

10.1006/icar.2001.6588

Instabilities and strong dynamical interactions between several giant planets have been proposed as a possible explanation for the surprising orbital properties of extrasolar planetary systems. In particular, dynamical instabilities would seem to provide a natural mechanism for producing the highly eccentric orbits seen in many systems. Here we present results from numerical integrations for the dynamical evolution of planetary systems containing two identical giant planets in nearly circular orbits very close to the dynamical stability limit. We determine the statistical properties of the three main types of systems resulting from the development of an instability: systems containing one planet, following either a collision between the two initial planets, or the ejection of one of them to infinity, and systems containing two planets in a new, quasi-stable configuration. We discuss the implications of our results for the formation and evolution of observed extrasolar planetary systems. We conclude that the distributions of eccentricities and semimajor axes for observed systems cannot be explained easily by invoking dynamical interactions between two planets initially on circular orbits. While highly eccentric orbits can be produced naturally by these interactions, collisions between the two planets, which occur frequently in the range of observed semimajor axes, would result in many more nearly circular orbits than in the observed sample.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Dynamical Instabilities in Extrasolar Planetary Systems Containing Two Giant Planets 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 Dynamical Instabilities in Extrasolar Planetary Systems Containing Two Giant Planets, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Dynamical Instabilities in Extrasolar Planetary Systems Containing Two Giant Planets will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-722566