Evolution of the Obliquities of the Giant Planets during Migration

Details Evolution of the Obliquities of the Giant Planets during Migration Evolution of the Obliquities of the Giant Planets during Migration

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.6308h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #63.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.611

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

Tsiganis et al. (2005) have proposed that the orbital architecture of the outer Solar System can be established if it was initially compact and Jupiter and Saturn crossed the 2:1 orbital resonance by divergent migration. The crossing led to close encounters among the giant planets, but the eccentricities and inclinations were damped to their current values by interactions with planetesimals. Brunini (2006) has reported numerical simulations of this scenario, including the evolution of the planetary spin axes. He found that large obliquities are generated during the encounter phase and that the final obliquities are similar to the observed values. We present a simple analytic argument which show that the change in the spin axis direction relative to an inertial frame during an encounter between the planets is very small and that the change in the obliquity (which is measured from the orbit normal) is due to the change in the orbital inclination. Since the inclinations are damped by planetesimal interactions on timescales much shorter than the timescales on which the spins precess due to the torques from the Sun, especially for Uranus and Neptune, the obliquities should return to small values if they are small before the encounters. We have performed simulations similar to those reported by Brunini, using the symplectic integrator SyMBA modified to include spin evolution due to the torques from the Sun and mutual planetary interactions. Our numerical results disagree with those of Brunini and are consistent with the analytic argument for no significant remnant obliquities.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Evolution of the Obliquities of the Giant Planets during Migration 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 Evolution of the Obliquities of the Giant Planets during Migration, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Evolution of the Obliquities of the Giant Planets during Migration will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1078102