Migration and giant planet formation
Abstract
We extend the core-accretion model of giant gaseous planets by Pollack et al. (\cite{P96}) to include migration, disc evolution and gap formation. Starting with a core of a fraction of an Earth's mass located at 8 AU, we end our simulation with the onset of runaway gas accretion when the planet is at 5.5 AU 1 Myr later. This timescale is about a factor ten shorter than the one found by Pollack et al. (\cite{P96}) even though the disc was less massive initially and viscously evolving. Other initial conditions can lead to even shorter timescales. The reason for this speed-up is found to result from the fact that a moving planet does not deplete its feeding zone to the extend of a static planet. Thus, the uncomfortably long formation timescale associated with the core-accretion scenario can be considerably reduced and brought in much better agreement with the typical disc lifetimes inferred from observations of young circumstellar discs.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- April 2004
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361:20040053
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0403574
- Bibcode:
- 2004A&A...417L..25A
- Keywords:
-
- stars: planetary systems;
- stars: planetary systems: formation;
- solar system: formation;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 9 pages, 2 figures, published in A&