2008/08/31 by Stephen L. Adler
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Astrobiology #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Exoplanet #Gas giant #Internal heating #Jupiter (rocket family) #Neptune #Physics #Planet #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Uranus #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2008.12.023
published as Phys.Lett.B671:203-206,2009 · Latex, 6 pages; v4 is final version to appear in Phys. Lett. B
arxiv created 2008/12/09 · openalex publication_date 2008/12/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We suggest that accretion of planet-bound dark matter by the Jovian planets, and by hot-Jupiter exoplanets, could be a significant source of their internal heat. The anomalously low internal heat of Uranus would then be explained if the collision believed to have tilted the axis of Uranus also knocked it free of most of its associated dark matter cloud. Our considerations focus on the efficient capture of non-self-annihilating dark matter, but could also apply to self-annihilating dark matter, provided the capture efficiency is small enough that the earth heat balance constraint is obeyed.