CAPTURE OF IRREGULAR SATELLITES AT JUPITER

Author(s)

Nesvorny, David ^[1] ; Vokrouhlicky, David ^{[2, 1]} ; Deienno, Rogerio ^{[3, 1]}

Affiliation

^[1] Southwest Res Inst, Dept Space Studies, Boulder, CO 80302 - USA

^[2] Charles Univ Prague, Inst Astron, CR-18000 Prague 8 - Czech Republic

^[3] Natl Inst Space Res, Div Space Mech & Control, BR-12227010 Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL; v. 784, n. 1 MAR 20 2014.
• Web of Science Citations: 39

Abstract

The irregular satellites of outer planets are thought to have been captured from heliocentric orbits. The exact nature of the capture process, however, remains uncertain. We examine the possibility that irregular satellites were captured from the planetesimal disk during the early solar system instability when encounters between the outer planets occurred. Nesvorny et al. already showed that the irregular satellites of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune were plausibly captured during planetary encounters. Here we find that the current instability models present favorable conditions for capture of irregular satellites at Jupiter as well, mainly because Jupiter undergoes a phase of close encounters with an ice giant. We show that the orbital distribution of bodies captured during planetary encounters provides a good match to the observed distribution of irregular satellites at Jupiter. The capture efficiency for each particle in the original transplanetary disk is found to be (1.3-3.6) x 10(-8). This is roughly enough to explain the observed population of jovian irregular moons. We also confirm Nesvorny et al.'s results for the irregular satellites of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/11109-5 - Satellites of Saturn: Stability, Capture and Analysis of the Excitations on the Eccentricity and Inclination of the Regular Satellites During the Planetary Migration
• Grantee: Rogerio Deienno
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 12/23732-4 - Capture of irregular satellites during the planetary migration
• Grantee: Rogerio Deienno
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate