Search

The origin of the Uranian satellite system remains uncertain. The four major satellites have nearly circular, coplanar orbits, and the ratio of the satellite system to planetary mass resembles Jupiter’s satellite system, suggesting the Uranian system was similarly formed within a disk produced by gas coaccretion. However, Uranus is a retrograde rotator with a high obliquity. The satellites orbit in its highly tilted equatorial plane in the same sense as the planet’s retrograde rotation, a configuration that cannot be explained by coaccretion alone. In this work, we investigate the first stages of the coaccretion + giant-impact scenario proposed by Morbidelli et al. (2012) for the origin of the Uranian system. In this model, a satellite system formed by coaccretion is destabilized by a giant impact that tilts the planet. The primordial satellites collide and disrupt, creating an outer debris disk that can reorient to the planet’s new equatorial plane and accrete into Uranus’ four major satellites. The needed reorientation out to distances comparable to outermost Oberon requires that the impact creates an inner disk with ≥1% of Uranus’ mass. We here simulate giant impacts that appropriately tilt the planet and leave the system with an angular momentum comparable to that of the current system. We find that such impacts do not produce inner debris disks massive enough to realign the outer debris disk to the post-impact equatorial plane. Although our results are inconsistent with the apparent requirements of a coaccretion + giant-impact model, we suggest alternatives that merit further exploration.