TERRESTRIAL PLANET FORMATION IN THE PRESENCE OF MIGRATING SUPER-EARTHS

Super-Earths with orbital periods less than 100 days are extremely abundant around Sun-like stars. It is unlikely that these planets formed at their current locations. Rather, they likely formed at large distances from the star and subsequently migrated inward. Here we use N-body simulations to stud...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2014-10, Vol.794 (1), p.1-18
Main Authors: IZIDORO, ANDRE, Morbidelli, Alessandro, Raymond, Sean N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accretion disks
Astrophysics
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
DISTANCE
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Embryos
Extrasolar planets
MIGRATION
ORBITS
Physics
Planet formation
PLANETS
PROTOPLANETS
SATELLITES
Sciences of the Universe
SIMULATION
Stars
SUN
Terrestrial planets
VELOCITY
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Summary:Super-Earths with orbital periods less than 100 days are extremely abundant around Sun-like stars. It is unlikely that these planets formed at their current locations. Rather, they likely formed at large distances from the star and subsequently migrated inward. Here we use N-body simulations to study the effect of super-Earths on the accretion of rocky planets. In our simulations, one or more super-Earths migrate inward through a disk of planetary embryos and planetesimals embedded in a gaseous disk. We tested a wide range of migration speeds and configurations. Fast-migrating super-Earths ([tau] sub(mig) ~ 0.01-0.1 Myr) only have a modest effect on the protoplanetary embryos and planetesimals. Sufficient material survives to form rocky, Earth-like planets on orbits exterior to the super-Earths'. In contrast, slowly migrating super-Earths shepherd rocky material interior to their orbits and strongly deplete the terrestrial planet-forming zone. In this situation any Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone are extremely volatile-rich and are therefore probably not Earth-like.
ISSN:1538-4357
0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/794/1/11