A Moderate Migration Scenario for Jupiter to Form the Terrestrial Planets
Open Access
- Author:
- Todd, Zoe Robin
- Area of Honors:
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Steinn Sigurdsson, Thesis Supervisor
William Nielsen Brandt, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Solar System
Migration
Grand Tack - Abstract:
- The early solar system contained a gas-dominated protoplanetary disk that could cause the migration of the giant planets. This migration can be in the form of a two-stage migration, including an inward and then outward migration. One of the current favored theories, the Grand Tack theory, states that Jupiter migrates in to 1.5 AU, creating a planetesimal disk truncated at 1 AU to then form the terrestrial planets during the subsequent outward migration of Jupiter. There are reasons to believe that such a large movement by Jupiter may be impractical, namely the disk would need to be massive and long-lived. An exploration of migration parameters that involve smaller migration distances and shorter timescales can shed light on whether such extreme displacements are necessary for the formation of the solar system. We examine more moderate migration simulations, where Jupiter starts near the conjectured location of the ice line (~3-4 AU) and migrates a moderate radial distance inward for a variety of distances and times. After the inward migration, Jupiter moves outwards to its final orbital configuration today. We find that the planetesimal disk need not be truncated at 1 AU to form planets with similar characteristics to those in the solar system. We vary the number and mass of planetesimals in the disk to see how this affects the characteristics of the forming terrestrial planets. We find a number of scenarios that provide systems of terrestrial planets similar to those in the solar system. We thus propose an alternative to the Grand Tack theory where Jupiter's migration is less extreme than proposed in the Grand Tack theory.