Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21741503k&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #415.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We study the dynamical stability of an Earth mass planet in the presence of two giant planets in the context of Hill & Lagrange stability boundaries. Previous studies have shown that, for a two planet system, these boundaries are almost identical. Here, we explore if Hill stability can be extrapolated to determine if a system of two giant planets can support an Earth-mass planet in between, focusing on systems which have stable habitable zones. We compute the proximity to the Hill stability boundary for a large number of hypothetical systems of two giant planets with mutual inclinations of 0,5,10, 30 degrees and an eccentricity range of 0-0.6. We then place a hypothetical terrestrial mass planet in between the two planets, and perform N-body simulations to determine Lagrange stability, meaning no escape or exchanges. Unlike the two-planet case, we find that stability boundaries do not trace the analytic Hill limit. We therefore derive an empirical boundary which may be used in lieu of expensive N-nody calculations. These results may ease the search for habitable planets, as well as illuminate the possibility that most planetary systems are packed.
Barnes Robin
Kopparapu Ravi Kumar
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