Back to Search
Start Over
Formation of Giant Planet Satellites
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Recent analyses have shown that the concluding stages of giant planet formation are accompanied by the development of large-scale meridional flow of gas inside the planetary Hill sphere. This circulation feeds a circumplanetary disk that viscously expels gaseous material back into the parent nebula, maintaining the system in a quasi-steady state. Here we investigate the formation of natural satellites of Jupiter and Saturn within the framework of this newly outlined picture. We begin by considering the long-term evolution of solid material, and demonstrate that the circumplanetary disk can act as a global dust trap, where $s_{\bullet}\sim0.1-10\,$mm grains achieve a hydrodynamical equilibrium, facilitated by a balance between radial updraft and aerodynamic drag. This process leads to a gradual increase in the system's metallicity, and eventually culminates in the gravitational fragmentation of the outer regions of the solid sub-disk into $\mathcal{R}\sim100\,$km satellitesimals. Subsequently, satellite conglomeration ensues via pairwise collisions, but is terminated when disk-driven orbital migration removes the growing objects from the satellitesimal feeding zone. The resulting satellite formation cycle can repeat multiple times, until it is brought to an end by photo-evaporation of the parent nebula. Numerical simulations of the envisioned formation scenario yield satisfactory agreement between our model and the known properties of the Jovian and Saturnian moons.<br />Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
- Subjects :
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.2005.08330
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab8937