English

Not Just Gas: How Solid-Driven Torques Shaped the Migration of the Galilean Moons

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2026-02-04 v2

Abstract

Surviving rapid inward orbital migration is a crucial aspect of formation models for the Jupiter's Galilean moons. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the orbital migration of the Galilean moons by incorporating self-consistent solid dynamics in circumjovian disk models. We perform two-fluid simulations using the FARGO3D code on a 2D polar grid. The simulations model a satellite with the mass of a proto-moon, Europa, or Ganymede interacting with a circumjovian disk. The dust component, coupled to the gas via a drag force, is characterized by the dust-to-gas mass ratio (ϵ\epsilon) and the Stokes number (TsT_s). The effect of solids fundamentally alter the satellites' evolution. We identify a vast parameter space where migration is slowed, halted, robustly reversed -leading to outward migration-, or significantly accelerated inward. The migration rate is dependent on satellite mass, providing a natural source of differential migration. Solid dynamics provides a robust and self-consistent mechanism that fundamentally alters the migration of the Galilean moons, potentially addressing the long-standing migration catastrophe. This mechanism critically affects the survival of satellites and could offer a viable physical process to explain the establishment of resonances through differential migration. These findings establish that solid torques are a critical, non-negligible factor in shaping the final architecture of satellite systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.23542,
  title  = {Not Just Gas: How Solid-Driven Torques Shaped the Migration of the Galilean Moons},
  author = {Lucas Gonzalez-Rivas and Leonardo Krapp and Ximena Ramos and Pablo Benitez-Llambay},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.23542},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

5 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A Letter to the editor