Zink, Jon K. and Batygin, Konstantin and Adams, Fred C. (2020) The Great Inequality and the Dynamical Disintegration of the Outer Solar System. Astronomical Journal, 160 (5). Art. No. 232. ISSN 1538-3881. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/abb8de. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20201102-090536174
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Abstract
Using an ensemble of N-body simulations, this paper considers the fate of the outer gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) after the Sun leaves the main sequence and completes its stellar evolution. Due to solar mass loss—which is expected to remove roughly half of the star's mass—the orbits of the giant planets expand. This adiabatic process maintains the orbital period ratios, but the mutual interactions between planets and the width of mean-motion resonances (MMR) increase, leading to the capture of Jupiter and Saturn into a stable 5:2 resonant configuration. The expanded orbits, coupled with the large-amplitude librations of the critical MMR angle, make the system more susceptible to perturbations from stellar flyby interactions. Accordingly, within about 30 Gyr, stellar encounters perturb the planets onto the chaotic subdomain of the 5:2 resonance, triggering a large-scale instability, which culminates in the ejections of all but one planet over the subsequent ~10 Gyr. After an additional ~50 Gyr, a close stellar encounter (with a perihelion distance less than ~200 au) liberates the final planet. Through this sequence of events, the characteristic timescale over which the solar system will be completely dissolved is roughly 100 Gyr. Our analysis thus indicates that the expected dynamical lifetime of the solar system is much longer than the current age of the universe, but is significantly shorter than previous estimates.
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Additional Information: | © 2020 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2020 August 18; revised 2020 September 14; accepted 2020 September 14; published 2020 October 29. We would like to thank Kevin Hayakawa for his instructive discussion of long-term N-body simulations. The simulations described here were performed on the UCLA Hoffman2 shared computing cluster and used resources provided by the Bhaumik Institute. K.B. is grateful to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for their generous support. The work of F.C.A. is supported by in part by NASA grant No. NNX16AB47G and by the University of Michigan. | ||||||||||
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Subject Keywords: | Dynamical evolution ; Solar system | ||||||||||
Issue or Number: | 5 | ||||||||||
Classification Code: | Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Dynamical evolution (421); Solar system (1528) | ||||||||||
DOI: | 10.3847/1538-3881/abb8de | ||||||||||
Record Number: | CaltechAUTHORS:20201102-090536174 | ||||||||||
Persistent URL: | https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20201102-090536174 | ||||||||||
Official Citation: | Jon K. Zink et al 2020 AJ 160 232 | ||||||||||
Usage Policy: | No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided. | ||||||||||
ID Code: | 106376 | ||||||||||
Collection: | CaltechAUTHORS | ||||||||||
Deposited By: | Tony Diaz | ||||||||||
Deposited On: | 04 Nov 2020 18:33 | ||||||||||
Last Modified: | 16 Nov 2021 18:53 |
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