Co-accretion + Giant Impact Origin of the Uranus System: Post-impact Evolution

We investigate aspects of the co-accretion + giant impact scenario proposed by Morbidelli et al. (2012) for the origin of the Uranian satellites. In this model, a regular satellite system formed during gas accretion is impulsively destabilized by a Uranus-tipping impact, producing debris that ultimately re-orients to the planet’s new equatorial plane and re-accumulates into Uranus’ current large moons. We first investigate the nodal randomization of a disk of debris resulting from disruptive collisions between the hypothesized prior satellites. Consistent with Morbidelli et al., we find that an impact-generated interior c-disk with mass ≥10−2 Uranus masses is needed to cause sufficient nodal randomization to appropriately realign the outer debris disk. We then simulate the reaccumulation of the outer debris disk into satellites and find that disks with larger initial radii are needed to produce an outer debris disk that extends to Oberon’s distance, and that Uranus’ obliquity prior to the giant impact must have been substantial, ≥40°, if its original co-accreted satellite system was broadly similar in radial scale to those at Jupiter and Saturn today. Finally, we explore the subsequent evolution of a massive, water-dominated inner c-disk as it condenses, collisionally spreads, and spawns new moons beyond the Roche limit. We find that intense tidal dissipation in Uranus (i.e., ( Q / k 2 ) U ≤ 10 2 ) is needed to prevent large icy moons spawned from the inner disk from expanding beyond the synchronous orbit, where they would be long lived and inconsistent with the lack of massive inner moons at Uranus today. We conclude that while a co-accretion + giant impact is viable it requires rather specific conditions.

Internal-current Lorentz-force Heating of Astrophysical Objects

Two forms of ohmic heating of astrophysical secondaries have received particular attention: unipolar-generator heating with currents running between the primary and secondary, and magnetic induction heating due to the primary’s time-varying field. Neither appears to cause significant dissipation in the contemporary solar system. But these discussions have overlooked heating derived from the spatial variation of the primary’s field across the interior of the secondary. This leads to Lorentz-force-driven currents around paths entirely internal to the secondary, with resulting ohmic heating. We examine three ways to drive such currents, by the cross product of (1) the secondary’s azimuthal orbital velocity with the nonaxially symmetric field of the primary, (2) the radial velocity (due to nonzero eccentricity) of the secondary with the primary’s field, or (3) the out-of-plane velocity (due to nonzero inclination) with the primary’s field. The first of these operates even for a spin-locked secondary whose orbit has zero eccentricity, in strong contrast to tidal dissipation. We show that Jupiter’s moon Io today could dissipate about 600 GW (more than likely current radiogenic heating) in the outer 100 m of its metallic core by this mechanism. Had Io ever been at 3 Jovian radii instead of its current 5.9, it could have been dissipating 15,000 GW. Ohmic dissipation provides a mechanism that could operate in any solar system to drive inward migration of secondaries that then necessarily comes to a halt upon reaching a sufficiently close distance to the primary.

Model of Angular Momentum Transport at the Protoplane-tary Disk Evolution and Disk Surface Density

We consider how the tidal effect of a protoplanetary disk interaction can be incorporated into calculations of its viscous evolution. The evolution of the disk occurs under the action of both internal viscous torques and external torques resulting from the presence of one or more embedded planets. The planets migrate under the effect of their tidal interaction with the disk (in the type-II migration regime). Torques on a planet are caused by its gravitational interaction with the density waves which occupy the Lindblad resonances in the disk. Our model simplifies the functional form of the rate of injection of the angular momentum Λ(r) to construct and solve the evolution equation for a disk and an embedded protoplanet. The functional Λ(r) depends on the tidal dissipation distribution in the disk which is concentrated in a vicinity of the protoplanet’s orbit. We have found an analytic solution for the disk surface density.

Enhanced vertical mixing in the glacial ocean inferred from sedimentary carbon isotopes

Reconstructing the circulation, mixing and carbon content of the Last Glacial Maximum ocean remains challenging. Recent hypotheses suggest that a shoaled Atlantic meridional overturning circulation or increased stratification would have reduced vertical mixing, isolated the abyssal ocean and increased carbon storage, thus contributing to lower atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Here, using an ensemble of ocean simulations, we evaluate impacts of changes in tidal energy dissipation due to lower sea levels on ocean mixing, circulation, and carbon isotope distributions. We find that increased tidal mixing strengthens deep ocean flow rates and decreases vertical gradients of radiocarbon and δ13C in the deep Atlantic. Simulations with a shallower overturning circulation and more vigorous mixing fit sediment isotope data best. Our results, which are conservative, provide observational support that vertical mixing in the glacial Atlantic may have been enhanced due to more vigorous tidal dissipation, despite shoaling of the overturning circulation and increases in stratification.

Tidal dissipation modelling in gaseous giant planets at the time of space missions

<p>Gaseous giant planets (Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system and hot Jupiters around other stars) are turbulent rotating magnetic objects that have strong and complex interactions with their environment (their moons in the case of Jupiter and Saturn and their host stars in the case of hot Jupiters/Saturns). In such systems, the dissipation of tidal waves excited by tidal forces shape the orbital architecture and the rotational dynamics of the planets.</p> <p>During the last decade, a revolution has occurred for our understanding of tides in these systems. First, Lainey et al. (2009, 2012, 2017) have measured tidal dissipation stronger by one order of magnitude than expected in Jupiter and Saturn. Second, unexplained broad diversity of orbital architectures and large radius of some hot Jupiters are observed in exoplanetary systems. Finally, new constraints obtained thanks to <em>Kepler</em>/K2 and TESS indicate that tidal dissipation in gaseous giant exoplanets is weaker than in Jupiter and in Saturn (Ogilvie 2014, Van Eylen et al. 2018, Huber et al. 2019).</p> <p>Furthermore, the space mission JUNO and the grand finale of the CASSINI mission have revolutionized our knowledge of the interiors of giant planets. We now know, for example, that Jupiter is a very complex planet: it is a stratified planet with, from the surface to the core, a differentially rotating convective envelope, a first mixing zone (with stratified convection), a uniformly rotating magnetised convective zone, a second magnetized mixing zone (the diluted core, potentially in stratified convection) and a solid core (Debras & Chabrier 2019). So far, tides in these planets have been studied by assuming a simplified internal structure with a stable rocky and icy core (Remus et al. 2012, 2015) and a deep convective envelope surrounded by a thin stable atmosphere (Ogilvie & Lin 2004) where mixing processes, differential rotation and magnetic field were completely neglected.</p> <p>Our objective is thus to predict tidal dissipation using internal structure models, which agree with these last observational constrains. In this work, we build a new ab-initio model of tidal dissipation in giant planets that coherently takes into account the interactions of tidal waves with their complex stratification induced by the mixing of heavy elements, their zonal winds, and (dynamo) magnetic fields. This model is a semi-global model in the planetary equatorial plane. We study the linear excitation of tidal magneto-gravito-inertial progressive waves and standing modes. We take into account the buoyancy, the compressibility, the Coriolis acceleration (including differential rotation), and the Lorentz force. The tidal waves are submitted to the different potential dissipative processes: Ohmic, thermal, molecular diffusivities, and viscosity. We here present the general formalism and the potential regimes of parameters that should be explored. The quantities of interest such as tidal torque, dissipation, and heating are derived. This will pave the way for full 3D numerical simulations that will take into account complex internal structure and dynamics of gaseous giant (exo-)planets in spherical/spheroidal geometry.</p> <p> </p>

Dynamical evidence for Phobos and Deimos as remnants of a disrupted common progenitor

<p>The origin of the Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, remains elusive. While the morphology and their cratered surfaces suggest an asteroidal origin, capture has been questioned because of potential dynamical difficulties in achieving the current near-circular, near-equatorial orbits. To circumvent this, in situ formation models have been proposed as alternatives. Yet, explaining the present location of the moons on opposite sides of the synchronous radius, their small sizes and apparent compositional differences with Mars has proved challenging. Here, we combine geophysical and tidal-evolution modelling of a Mars–satellite system to propose that Phobos and Deimos originated from disintegration of a common progenitor that was possibly formed in situ. We show that tidal dissipation within a Mars–satellite system, enhanced by the physical libration of the satellite, circularizes the post-disrupted eccentric orbits in <2.7 Gyr and makes Phobos descend to its present orbit from its point of origin close to or above the synchronous orbit. Our estimate for Phobos’s maximal tidal lifetime is considerably less than the age of Mars, indicating that it is unlikely to have originated alongside Mars. Deimos initially moved inwards, but never transcended the co-rotation radius because of insufficient eccentricity and therefore insufficient tidal dissipation. Whereas Deimos is very slowly receding from Mars, Phobos will continue to spiral towards and either impact with Mars or become tidally disrupted on reaching the Roche limit in <span class="stix">≲</span>39 Myr.</p>

ASASSN-18aan: An eclipsing SU UMa-type cataclysmic variable with a 3.6-hr orbital period and a late G-type secondary star

We report photometric and spectroscopic observations of the eclipsing SU UMa-type dwarf nova ASASSN-18aan. We observed the 2018 superoutburst with 2.3 mag brightening and found the orbital period (Porb) to be 0.149454(3) d, or 3.59 hr. This is longward of the period gap, establishing ASASSN-18aan as one of a small number of long-Porb SU UMa-type dwarf novae. The estimated mass ratio, [q = M2/M1 = 0.278(1)], is almost identical to the upper limit of tidal instability by the 3 : 1 resonance. From eclipses, we found that the accretion disk at the onset of the superoutburst may reach the 3 : 1 resonance radius, suggesting that the superoutburst of ASASSN-18aan results from the tidal instability. Considering the case of long-Porb WZ Sge-type dwarf novae, we suggest that the tidal dissipation at the tidal truncation radius is enough to induce SU UMa-like behavior in relatively high-q systems such as SU UMa-type dwarf novae, but that this is no longer effective in low-q systems such as WZ Sge-type dwarf novae. The unusual nature of the system extends to the secondary star, for which we find a spectral type of G9, much earlier than typical for the orbital period, and a secondary mass M2 of around 0.18 M⊙, smaller than expected for the orbital period and the secondary’s spectral type. We also see indications of enhanced sodium abundance in the secondary’s spectrum. Anomalously hot secondaries are seen in a modest number of other CVs and related objects. These systems evidently underwent significant nuclear evolution before the onset of mass transfer. In the case of ASASSN-18aan, this apparently resulted in a mass ratio lower than typically found at the system’s Porb, which may account for the occurrence of a superoutburst at this relatively long period.

On a new formulation for energy transfer between convection and fast tides with application to giant planets and solar type stars

All the studies of the interaction between tides and a convective flow assume that the large scale tides can be described as a mean shear flow which is damped by small scale fluctuating convective eddies. The convective Reynolds stress is calculated using mixing length theory, accounting for a sharp suppression of dissipation when the turnover timescale is larger than the tidal period. This yields tidal dissipation rates several orders of magnitude too small to account for the circularization periods of late–type binaries or the tidal dissipation factor of giant planets. Here, we argue that the above description is inconsistent, because fluctuations and mean flow should be identified based on the timescale, not on the spatial scale, on which they vary. Therefore, the standard picture should be reversed, with the fluctuations being the tidal oscillations and the mean shear flow provided by the largest convective eddies. We assume that energy is locally transferred from the tides to the convective flow. Using this assumption, we obtain values for the tidal Q factor of Jupiter and Saturn and for the circularization periods of PMS binaries in good agreement with observations. The timescales obtained with the equilibrium tide approximation are however still 40 times too large to account for the circularization periods of late–type binaries. For these systems, shear in the tachocline or at the base of the convective zone may be the main cause of tidal dissipation.