Survival of non-coplanar, closely packed planetary systems after a close encounter

David R. Rice; Frederic A. Rasio; Jason H. Steffen

doi:10.1093/MNRAS/STY2418

Survival of non-coplanar, closely packed planetary systems after a close encounter

David R. Rice^*, Frederic A. Rasio, Jason H. Steffen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Planetary systems with more than two bodies will experience orbital crossings at a time related to the initial orbital separations of the planets. After a crossing, the system enters a period of chaotic evolution ending in the reshaping of the system's architecture via planetary collisions or ejections. We carry out N-body integrations on a large number of systems with equally spaced planets (in units of the Hill radius) to determine the distribution of instability times for a given planet separation.We investigate both the time to the initiation of instability through a close encounter and the time to a planet-planet collision. We find that a significant portion of systems with non-zero mutual inclinations survive after a close encounter and do not promptly experience a planet-planet collision. Systems with significant inclinations can continue to evolve for over 1000 times longer than the encounter time. The fraction of long-lived systems is dependent on the absolute system scale and the initial inclination of the planets. These results have implications to the assumed stability of observed planetary systems.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2205-2212
Number of pages	8
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume	481
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/MNRAS/STY2418
State	Published - Dec 1 2018

Funding

JHS and DRR acknowledge support from the College of Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Center For Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) at Northwestern University, and NASA grants NNX16AK32G and NNX16AK08G. All simulations were supported by the Quest high performance computing facility at Northwestern University. We acknowledge that the study resulting in this publication was assisted by grants from the WCAS Undergraduate Research Grant Program which is administered by Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

Keywords

Methods: numerical
Planets and satellites: dynamical evolution and stability

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

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10.1093/MNRAS/STY2418

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abstract = "Planetary systems with more than two bodies will experience orbital crossings at a time related to the initial orbital separations of the planets. After a crossing, the system enters a period of chaotic evolution ending in the reshaping of the system's architecture via planetary collisions or ejections. We carry out N-body integrations on a large number of systems with equally spaced planets (in units of the Hill radius) to determine the distribution of instability times for a given planet separation.We investigate both the time to the initiation of instability through a close encounter and the time to a planet-planet collision. We find that a significant portion of systems with non-zero mutual inclinations survive after a close encounter and do not promptly experience a planet-planet collision. Systems with significant inclinations can continue to evolve for over 1000 times longer than the encounter time. The fraction of long-lived systems is dependent on the absolute system scale and the initial inclination of the planets. These results have implications to the assumed stability of observed planetary systems.",

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author = "Rice, {David R.} and Rasio, {Frederic A.} and Steffen, {Jason H.}",

note = "Funding Information: JHS and DRR acknowledge support from the College of Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Center For Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) at Northwestern University, and NASA grants NNX16AK32G and NNX16AK08G. All simulations were supported by the Quest high performance computing facility at Northwestern University. We acknowledge that the study resulting in this publication was assisted by grants from the WCAS Undergraduate Research Grant Program which is administered by Northwestern University{\textquoteright}s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 The Author(s).",

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N2 - Planetary systems with more than two bodies will experience orbital crossings at a time related to the initial orbital separations of the planets. After a crossing, the system enters a period of chaotic evolution ending in the reshaping of the system's architecture via planetary collisions or ejections. We carry out N-body integrations on a large number of systems with equally spaced planets (in units of the Hill radius) to determine the distribution of instability times for a given planet separation.We investigate both the time to the initiation of instability through a close encounter and the time to a planet-planet collision. We find that a significant portion of systems with non-zero mutual inclinations survive after a close encounter and do not promptly experience a planet-planet collision. Systems with significant inclinations can continue to evolve for over 1000 times longer than the encounter time. The fraction of long-lived systems is dependent on the absolute system scale and the initial inclination of the planets. These results have implications to the assumed stability of observed planetary systems.

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Survival of non-coplanar, closely packed planetary systems after a close encounter

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