2018/11/15 by J. Szulágyi, M. Cilibrasi, Marco Cilibrasi +2 · 37 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrobiology #Astronomy #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Exoplanet #Neptune #Nice model #Outer planets #Physics #Planet #Planetary migration #Population #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Uranus #astro-ph.EP
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aaeed6
published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters 868(1), L13 (IOP Publishing) · In press at ApJL
arxiv created 2018/11/15 · openalex publication_date 2018/11/19 · arxiv updated 2018/12/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract Satellites of giant planets have been thought to form in gaseous circumplanetary disks (CPDs) during the late planet-formation phase, but it was unknown whether or not smaller-mass planets such as the ice giants could form such disks, and thus moons, there. We combined radiative hydrodynamical simulations with satellite population synthesis to investigate the question in the case of Uranus and Neptune. For both ice giants we found that a gaseous CPD is created at the end of their formation. The population synthesis confirmed that Uranian-like, icy, prograde satellite system could form in these CPDs within a couple of 10 5 yr. This means that Neptune could have a Uranian-like moon system originally that was wiped away by the capture of Triton. Furthermore, the current moons of Uranus can be reproduced by our model without the need for planet–planet impact to create a debris disk for the moons to grow. These results highlight that even ice giants—among the most common mass category of exoplanets—can also form satellites, opening a way to a potentially much larger population of exomoons than previously thought.