Physics – Geophysics
Scientific paper
Sep 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.0702c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #07.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.491
Physics
Geophysics
Scientific paper
We model satellite growth within a viscous circumplanetary accretion disk sustained by an inflow of gas and solids from heliocentric orbit during the end stages of the planet's formation [1,2]. Our N-body simulations include a time-dependent inflow and density wave interactions between growing satellites and an accompanying gas disk. The Type I orbital decay rate is proportional to a satellite's mass, so that a satellite grows until it achieves a critical mass for which the characteristic time for its further growth due to the inflow is comparable to its Type I decay timescale. We find this critical mass to be comparable to the masses of the gas planets’ largest satellites. We also find that the balance between the inflow supply of mass to the growing satellites and satellite loss through Type I induced collision with the planet causes a satellite system's total mass, MT, to maintain an approximately constant value throughout the satellite formation epoch. A value (MT/MP) 10-4, where MP is the planet's mass, occurs for a wide range of disk and inflow parameters. We find final satellites systems similar to those of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus in terms of (MT/MP), and the masses, number, and orbital spacings of large satellites, although the applicability of our model to Uranus depends on how its obliquity originated. We will here discuss this model's ability to explain differences and commonalities between the Jovian and Saturnian satellite systems, including how predicted satellite distributions and ice vs. rock compositions would evolve as the inflow supply to the disk slows and finally ceases. [1] Canup, R.M. & W.R. Ward, Astron. J. 124, 3404-3423 (2002); [2] Canup, R.M. & W.R. Ward, Nature 441, 834-839 (2006). [3] Support from NASA's Outer Planets Research and Planetary Geology & Geophysics programs is gratefully acknowledged.
Canup Robin M.
Ward William R.
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