Accumulation of Giant Planet Atmospheres Around 5 -- 10 M⊕ Cores

Details Accumulation of Giant Planet Atmospheres Around 5 -- 10 M⊕ Cores Accumulation of Giant Planet Atmospheres Around 5 -- 10 M⊕ Cores

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufm.p32a..04h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #P32A-04

Physics

6220 Jupiter

Scientific paper

Observations of protoplanetary disks imply that gas giant planets form very quickly (≤ 10 Myr). Recent interior models of Jupiter suggest smaller core masses (0 -- 10 M⊕ ) than had been previously predicted (10 to 30 M⊕ ). We have computed evolutionary simulations of Jupiter based on the core accretion model of gas giant planet formation where we vary the grain opacity and the planetesimal surface density of the solar density of the solar nebula. We also explore the implications of halting the solid accretion at selected core mass values during the protoplanet's growth, thus simulating the presence of a competing embryo. The core accretion model states that a solid core is formed from the accretion of planetesimals in the solar nebular followed by the capture of a massive envelope from the solar nebula gas. Our simulations based on this model (Pollack et al. 1996) have been successful in explaining many features of the giant planets. Our most recent results (Hubickyj et al. 2004) demonstrate that decreasing the grain opacity reduces the formation time by more than half of that for models computed with full interstellar grain opacity values. In fact, it is the reduction of the grain opacity in the upper portion of the envelope with T < 500 K that governs the lowering of the formation time. Decreasing the surface density of the planetesimals lowers the final core mass of the protoplanet but increases the formation timescale. Finally, a core mass cutoff results in the reduction of the time needed for a protoplanet to evolve to the stage of runaway gas accretion provided the cutoff mass is not too small. Our models show that with reasonable parameters it is possible to form Jupiter by means of the core accretion process in 3 Myr or less. \ref Hubickyj, O., P. Bodenheimer, & J. J. Lissauer 2004. Accumulation of giant planet atmospheres around 5 -- 10 M⊕ cores. In preparation. \ref Pollack J. B., O. Hubickyj, P. Bodenheimer, J. J. Lissauer, M. Podolak, and Y. Greenzweig 1996. Formation of the giant planets by concurrent accretion of solids and gas. Icarus 124, 62--85. This work was supported in part by NASA grant NAG5--9661 and NASA grant NAG 5--13285 from the Origins of Solar Systems Program.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Accumulation of Giant Planet Atmospheres Around 5 -- 10 M⊕ Cores 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 Accumulation of Giant Planet Atmospheres Around 5 -- 10 M⊕ Cores, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Accumulation of Giant Planet Atmospheres Around 5 -- 10 M⊕ Cores will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1453371