Dynamics of the Outer Planets and Satellites

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AWARD NO: AST-0607306PI: William WardINSTITUTION: Southwest Research InstituteTITLE: The Dynamics of the Outer Planets and SatellitesABSTRACTThis research is a continuation of a project to study the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planets and their satellites both in our own solar system and in planetary systems in general. Three specific tasks will be undertaken which have broad implications for our understanding of planetary/satellite systems. The first focuses on the formation of giant planet satellites and examines the evolution of a proto-satellite disk orbiting a growing gas giant planet in order to develop and evaluate a new model of satellite formation. The objective is to place the formation of Jupiter's Galilean satellites from a continuously fed, viscously evolving accretion disk (the so-called starved disk model) within the context of the earliest evolution of the planet itself, and to assess whether the system naturally passes through conditions favorable to their formation and survival. The second task is the continuation of a study of planetary orbital precessions during the dissipation of a precursor nebula which causes secular resonance sweeping, a leading mechanism for the excitation of eccentricities and inclinations of various planetary system populations, such as the asteroid and Kuiper belts. It is essential that the technique used to ascertain resonance locations and migration rates be reliable, and an omission of past models is that they have not considered any motion of the nebula forced by embedded planets. The objective of this task is to determine self-consistent precession rates for planets embedded in disks that are themselves forced to become eccentric in response to planetary perturbations, and use these rates to predict the resonance sites as a function of disk-to-planet mass ratio.Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows will be educated and trained by this work through workshops and direct supervision. In addition to traditional dissemination methods, when possible, the PI will also communicate the results of this study through more public channels including popular science magazines.