Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-04-27
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
5 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomy Society Letters
Scientific paper
The recent discovery of a three-planet extrasolar system of HR 8799 by Marois et al. is a breakthrough in the field of the direct imaging. This great achievement raises questions on the formation and dynamical stability of the HR 8799 system, because Keplerian fits to astrometric data are strongly unstable during ~0.2Myr. We search for stable, self-consistent N-body orbits with the so called GAMP method that incorporates stability constraints into the optimization algorithm. Our searches reveal only small regions of stable motions in the phase space of three-planet, coplanar configurations. Most likely, if the planetary masses are in 10-Jupiter-mass range, they may be stable only if the planets are involved in two- or three-body mean motion resonances (MMRs). We found that 80% systems found by GAMP that survived 30Myr backwards integrations, eventually become unstable after 100Myr. It could mean that the HR 8799 system undergo a phase of planet-planet scattering. We test a hypothesis that the less certain detection of the innermost object is due to a blending effect. In such a case, two-planet best-fit systems are mostly stable, on quasi-circular orbits and close to the 5:2 MMR, resembling the Jupiter-Saturn pair.
Gozdziewski Krzysztof
Migaszewski Cezary
No associations
LandOfFree
Is the HR 8799 extrasolar system destined for planetary scattering? 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 Is the HR 8799 extrasolar system destined for planetary scattering?, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Is the HR 8799 extrasolar system destined for planetary scattering? will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-322420