Migrating Planets
Abstract
A planet orbiting in a disk of planetesimals can experience an instability in which it migrates to smaller orbital radii. Resonant interactions between the planet and planetesimals remove angular momentum from the planetesimals, increasing their eccentricities. Subsequently, the planetesimals either collide with or are ejected by the planet, reducing the semimajor axis of the planet. If the surface density of planetesimals exceeds a critical value, corresponding to 0.03 solar masses of gas inside the orbit of Jupiter, the planet will migrate inward a large distance. This instability may explain the presence of Jupiter-mass objects in small orbits around nearby stars.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9801138,
title = {Migrating Planets},
author = {Norm Murray and Brad Hansen and Matt Holman and Scott Tremaine},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9801138},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
Latex, 14 pages, and 2 postscript figures. Appeared in Science, 2 January; Table 1 originally omitted