EVIDENCE FROM THE ASTEROID BELT FOR A VIOLENT PAST EVOLUTION OF JUPITER's ORBIT

By A. Morbidelli, R. Brasser, R. Gomes, Harold Levison, Kleomenis Tsiganis. 2010

189 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We use the current orbital structure of large (>50 km) asteroids in the main asteroid belt to constrain the evolution of the giant planets when they migrated from their primordial orbits to their current ones. Minton & Malhotra showed that the orbital distribution of large asteroids in the main belt can be reproduced by an exponentially decaying migration of the giant planets on a timescale of τ ∼ 0.5 Myr. However, self-consistent numerical simulations show that the planetesimal-driven migration of the giant planets is inconsistent with an exponential change in their semi-major axes on such a short timescale. In fact, the typical timescale is τ ⩾ 5 Myr. When giant planet migration on this timescale is applied to the asteroid belt, the resulting orbital distribution is incompatible with the observed one. However, the planet migration can be significantly sped up by planet–planet encounters. Consider an evolution where both Jupiter and Saturn have close encounters with a Neptune-mass planet (presumably Uranus or Neptune itself) and where this third planet, after being scattered inward by Saturn, is scattered outward by Jupiter. This scenario leads to a very rapid increase in the orbital separation between Jupiter and Saturn which we show here to have only mild effects on the structure of the asteroid belt. This type of evolution is called a “jumping-Jupiter” case. Our results suggest that the total mass and dynamical excitation of the asteroid belt before migration were comparable to those currently observed. Moreover, they imply that, before migration, the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn were much less eccentric than their current ones.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/735e52e56ce574264e921a63f2f22f2336fa046d

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

Citations in the corpus

LATE ORBITAL INSTABILITIES IN THE OUTER PLANETS INDUCED BY INTERACTION WITH A SELF-GRAVITATING PLANETESIMAL DISK (2011, background): “It is the only migration model that is consistent with the current dynamical structure of the terrestrial planets (Brasser et al. 2009) and the main asteroid belt (Morbidelli et al. 2010).”
Populating the asteroid belt from two parent source regions due to the migration of giant planets—“The Grand Tack” (2012, background): “The large movement of the giant planets causes powerful orbital resonances to sweep across the asteroid belt, creating large regions of instability in the asteroid belt, causing a rapid depletion that removes 1⁄2 to 1⁄4 of its mass, much of which is destined to bombard the terrestrial planets (Gomes”
CAPTURE OF TROJANS BY JUMPING JUPITER (2013, methodology): “…jumping-Jupiter model, is required to explain the secular architecture of the outer planets, orbital distribution of asteroids, and dynamical survival of the terrestrial planets (Morbidelli et al. 2009b, 2010, Brasser et al. 2009, Minton & Malhotra 2009, Walsh & Morbidelli 2011, Agnor & Lin 2012).”
Origin of water in the inner Solar System: Planetesimals scattered inward during Jupiter and Saturn's rapid gas accretion (2017, background): “, 2016), an instability in the giant planets’ orbits (Morbidelli et al., 2010), and long-term dynamical effects (Minton and Malhotra, 2010) may have contributed to shaping the present-day distribution.”
The Compositional Structure of the Asteroid Belt (2015, background): “…Asteroid Belt by way of depletions near primordial mean motion resonances with Jupiter (Minton and Malhotra 2009), though some types of migrations can be ruled out by clear patterns of depletion and orbital changes that would still be noticeable in today’s Asteroid Belt (Morbidelli et al., 2010).”
YOUNG SOLAR SYSTEM's FIFTH GIANT PLANET? (2011, background): “The behavior of the g6 and s6 modes, on the other hand, is important for the asteroid belt (Morbidelli et al. 2010).”
Debris disks as signposts of terrestrial planet formation (2011, background): “The actual distribution of giant planets at Jupiter-Saturn distances is unknown, although observational constraints predict that at least 10%, and perhaps more than 50%, of stars have giant planets at these separations (Cumming et al. 2008; Gould et al. 2010).”
EVIDENCE FOR SLOW MIGRATION OF NEPTUNE FROM THE INCLINATION DISTRIBUTION OF KUIPER BELT OBJECTS (2015, background): “For example, Jupiter’s migration cannot be smooth, because that would violate constraints from the terrestrial planets (Brasser et al. 2009, 2013; Agnor & Lin 2012), asteroid belt (Morbidelli et al. 2010), and the structure of secular modes in Jupiter’s orbit (Morbidelli et al. 2009a).”
Oort cloud and Scattered Disc formation during a late dynamical instability in the Solar System (2012, methodology): “The migration was accomplished by interpolation of the planets’ orbital elements with SWIFT RMVS3 (Petit et al., 2001; Brasser et al., 2009; Morbidelli et al., 2010).”
Origin and evolution of the atmospheres of early Venus, Earth and Mars (2018, background): “…they were embedded in the nebula, in which H2 could accumulate before the protoplanetary disk disappeared (e.g., Ikoma and Genda 2006; Raymond et al. 2006, 2009; Lunine et al. 2011; Ikoma and Hori 2012; Morbidelli et al. 2010, 2012; Walsh et al. 2011; O’Brien et al. 2014; Stökl et al. 2015, 2016).”
MAIN BELT ASTEROIDS WITH WISE/NEOWISE. I. PRELIMINARY ALBEDOS AND DIAMETERS (2011, background): “Migrations of the giant planets may have both cleared many of the objects that initially formed in the Main Belt region and repopulated this area with objects from beyond the “snow line” (Morbidelli et al. 2010; Walsh & Morbidelli 2011).”
STATISTICAL STUDY OF THE EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM'S INSTABILITY WITH FOUR, FIVE, AND SIX GIANT PLANETS (2012, background): “The behavior of the g6 and s6 modes, on the other hand, is important for the asteroid belt (Morbidelli et al. 2010, Minton & Malhotra 2011).”