Physics
Scientific paper
Jun 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001phdt.........4t&link_type=abstract
Thesis (PhD). QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY AT KINGSTON (CANADA), Source DAI-B 61/12, p. 6517, Jun 2001, 124 pages.
Physics
1
Scientific paper
The outer giant planets, Uranus and Neptune, pose a challenge to theories of planet formation. They exist in a region of the Solar System where long dynamical timescales and a low primordial density of material would have conspired to make the formation of such large bodies (~15 and 17 times as massive as the Earth, respectively) very difficult. In this work, a well- established model of planet formation, together with numerical simulations, are used to show that such bodies are unlikely to have formed far beyond the region of Jupiter and Saturn. A model which addresses this problem is proposed: instead of forming in the trans-Saturnian region, Uranus and Neptune underwent most of their growth among proto-Jupiter and -Saturn, and were scattered outward to their present orbits when Jupiter acquired its massive gas envelope. Numerical simulations show this model to be very robust, readily reproducing the configuration of the outer Solar System for a wide range of initial conditions. Simultaneously, the model may also help to account for the present state of the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt (the trans-Neptunian disk of comets).
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