English

Tilting Planets During Planet Scattering

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2021-07-07 v2

Abstract

Observational constraints on planet spin-axis has recently become possible, and revealed a system that favors a large spin-axis misalignment, a low stellar spin-orbit misalignment and a high eccentricity. To explain the origin of such systems, we propose a mechanism that could tilt the planet spin-axis during planet-planet scattering, which are natural outcomes of in-situ formation and disk migration. Specifically, we show that spin-orbit resonances could occur for a short time period during the scattering processes, and excite the misalignment of the planet spin-axis. This typically leads to planets with large spin-misalignment and a wide range of eccentricities and inclinations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2103.15843,
  title  = {Tilting Planets During Planet Scattering},
  author = {Gongjie Li},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.15843},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

6 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJL

R2 v1 2026-06-24T00:39:46.605Z