LABORATOIRE G. D. CASSINI - O. C. A.

Séminaire

Phénomènes Physiques et Modèles Mathématiques en Sciences de l'Univers

 

Le séminaire a lieu le lundi 13 mai 2002 de 14h30 à 15h30
dans la salle de réunion du PHC (Observatoire de Nice).
 
 

The outer Uranian moons:
New insights in the scenario of the formation
of the giant planets.


  Gabriela Parisi

University de La Plata (Argentina).

 
The stochastic processes at  the end of the formation of the
planets  have been long  known (Safronov  1969, Lissauer  and Safronov
1991,  Harris and  Ward 1982).   The  large spin  obliquity of  Uranus
(98) is  usually attributed  to a great  tangential collision
with  another  protoplanet  at   the  end  of  the  accretion  process
(Korycansky  et al.  1990,  Parisi and  Brunini  1996, Parisi  and
Brunini 1997).   If Uranus had  had satellites before this  event, the
impulse  imparted at  collision would  have  produced a  shift in  the
orbital velocity  of the satellites.   Outer satellites of  Uranus had
been  probably unbound (Parisi  and Brunini  1996, Parisi  and Brunini
1997).  The  discovery of the  outer Uranian satellites  (Gladman et al. 1998,2000)  sets important  constraints  in  this  scenario.
Physical conditions  and dynamical constraints in  the great collision
scenario and restrictions in the possible mechanisms for the origin of
the outer Uranian satellites are  obtained from the knowledge of their
actual orbital properties (Brunini et al. 2002).  We conclude that
the  existence  of these  moons  implies  that  their origin  must  be
connected to  a break-up  process. Other scenarios  for the  origin of
them, cast doubts about the occurence  of a giant collision at the end
of  Uranus' formation  process  to  account for  its  large spin  axis
obliquity.   Other  mechanisms to  account  for  the  large spin  axis
inclination of this planet should be investigated.

 
References:
 

Brunini A., Parisi M. G. and Tancredi G. 2002. Constraints to Uranus'
great collision III: The origin of the outer satellites. Icarus accepted.
 

Gladman B. J., Nicholson P.D., Burns J.A. , Kavelaars J.J.,
Marsen B.J., Williams G.V. and Offutt W.B. 1998.
Discovery of two distant irregular moons of Uranus. Nature 392, p:897-899.
 

Gladman B.J., Kavelaars J.J., Holman M., Petit J-M,
Scholl H., Nicholson P.D. and Burns J.A. 2000. The discovery of
Uranus XIX, XX and XXI. Icarus 147, p: 320-324; erratum 148, p:320 (2000).
 

Harris A. W. and Ward W.R. 1982. Dynamical constraints on the formation
and evolution of planetary bodies. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 10,
p: 61-108.
 

Lissauer J. J. and Safronov V. S. 1991. The random component of planetary
rotation. Icarus 93, p:288-297.
 

Korycansky D. G., Bodenheimer P., Cassen P. and Pollak J. B. 1990.
One-dimensional calculations of a large impact on Uranus,
Icarus 84, p:52-541.
 

Parisi M. G. and Brunini A. 1996. Dynamical consequences of Uranus'
great collision. In Chaos in Gravitational N-body systems
(J.C. Muzzio, S. Ferraz-Mello and J. Henrard, Eds.), p:291-296
Kluwer Academic Publishers.
 

Parisi M. G.  and Brunini A. 1997. Constraints to Uranus' great Collision II.
Planetary and Space Science 45, p:181-187.
 

Safronov V. S. 1969. Evolution of the Protoplanetary Cloud and Formation
of The Earth and the Planets. NASA TTF-677.


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