Gas drag in primordial circumplanetary envelopes: A mechanism for satellite capture |
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| Authors: | James B Pollack Joseph A Burns Michael E Tauber |
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| Institution: | Theoretical and Planetary Studies Branch, Ames Research Center, NASA, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA;Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA;Aerodynamics Research Branch, Ames Research Center, NASA, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA |
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| Abstract: | Some natural satellites may have been captured due to the gas drag they experienced in passing through primordial circumplanetary nebulas. This paper models such an encounter and derives the testable parameters from the known properties of current solar system objects and Bodenheimer's (1977, Icarus 31) model of the earliest phases of Jupiter's evolution. We propose that the clusters of prograde and retrograde irregular satellites of Jupiter originated when two parent bodies were decelerated and fragmented as they passed through an extended primordial Jovian nebula. Fragmentation occured because the gas dynamic pressure exceeded the parent bodies' strengths. These events must have occurred only shortly before the primordial nebula experienced hydrodynamical collapse so that subsequently the fragments underwent only limited orbital evolution. Because self-gravity exceeded the relative drag force, the fragments initially remained together, only to be dispersed at a later time by a collision with a stray body. Predictions of this hypothesis, such as orbital distance of the irregular satellites and size of the parent bodies, are found to be consistent with the observed properties of Jupiter's irregular satellites. In addition nebular drag at a later time may have caused the inner three Galilean satellites to undergo a modest amount of orbital evolution, accounting for their present orbital resonance. Gas drag capture of Saturn's Phoebe and Iapetus and Neptune's Nereid and Triton may also be possible. Reasonable differences in properties could explain why these satellites, in contrast to the Jovian ones, did not fracture upon capture. The current irregular satellites represent only a tiny fraction of the bodies captured by primordial nebulas. The dominant fraction would have spiraled into the center of the nebula as a result of continued gas drag and thus offer one source for the heavy element cores of the outer planets. If one is willing to postulate the presence of a massive gaseous nebula around primordial Mars, then gas drag capture could account for the origin of the Martian moons. We hypothesize that a single parent body was captured in a region of the nebula where the gas velocity approached the Keplerian value, that it fragmented upon deceleration into at least two bodies, Phobos and Deimos, and that continued nebular drag led to the low eccentricity and inclination that characterize the satellites' current orbits. Following the dissipation of this nebula, the more massive Phobos tidally evolved to its current position. |
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