Growth of Jupiter: Enhancement of Core Accretion by a Voluminous Low-Mass Envelope

Abstract

We present calculations of the early stages of the formation of Jupiter via core nucleated accretion and gas capture. The core begins as a seed body of about 350 kilometers in radius and orbits in a swarm of planetesimals whose initial radii range from 15 meters to 50 kilometers. The evolution of the swarm accounts for growth and fragmentation, viscous and gravitational stirring, and for drag-assisted migration and velocity damping. During this evolution, less than 9% of the mass is in planetesimals smaller than 1 kilometer in radius; < ~25% is in planetesimals with radii between 1 and 10 kilometers; and < ~7% is in bodies with radii larger than 100 kilometers. Gas capture by the core substantially enhances the size-dependent cross-section of the planet for accretion of planetesimals. The calculation of dust opacity in the planet's envelope accounts for coagulation and sedimentation of dust particles released as planetesimals are ablated. The calculation is carried out at an orbital semi-major axis of 5.2 AU and the initial solids' surface density is 10 g/cm^2 at that distance. The results give a core mass of nearly 7.3 Earth masses (Mearth) and an envelope mass of approximately 0.15 Mearth after about 4e5 years, at which point the envelope growth rate surpasses that of the core. The same calculation without the envelope yields a core of only about 4.4 Mearth.

Published in the journal Icarus. Final version

References in corpus (12)

• Line and Mean Opacities for Ultracool Dwarfs and Extrasolar Planets
• Models of the in situ formation of detected extrasolar giant planets
• A Massive Core in Jupiter Predicted From First-Principles Simulations
• Formation of Jupiter using opacities based on detailed grain physics
• The opacity of grains in protoplanetary atmospheres
• Planet-Disc Interactions and Early Evolution of Planetary Systems
• Disk Dispersal and Planet Formation Time Scales
• Oligarchic planetesimal accretion and giant planet formation
• Planetesimal-driven planet migration in the presence of a gas disk
• Saturn Forms by Core Accretion in 3.4 Myr
• Forming Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in Few Million Years by Core Accretion
• Giant Planet Formation

Cited by in corpus (21)

• Tracing the formation history of giant planets in protoplanetary disks with Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Sulphur
• Evidence of an Upper Bound on the Masses of Planets and its Implications for Giant Planet Formation
• Grain opacity and the bulk composition of extrasolar planets. II. An analytical model for the grain opacity in protoplanetary atmospheres
• A Preliminary Jupiter Model
• Capture and Evolution of Planetesimals in Circumjovian Disks
• Effects of the Planetary Temperature on the Circumplanetary Disk and on the Gap
• New Formation Models for the Kepler-36 System
• New Constraints From Dust Lines On The Surface Densities Of Protoplanetary Disks
• Disk masses around solar-mass stars are underestimated by CO observations
• Exploring the conditions for forming cold gas giants through planetesimal accretion
• Particle accretion onto planets in discs with hydrodynamic turbulence
• From Pebbles and Planetesimals to Planets and Dust: the Protoplanetary Disk--Debris Disk Connection
• Growth of Jupiter: Formation in Disks of Gas and Solids and Evolution to the Present Epoch
• Detailed Calculations of the Efficiency of Planetesimal Accretion in the Core-Accretion Model
• Planet Mass and Metallicity: The Exoplanets and Solar System Connection
• In Situ and Ex Situ Formation Models of Kepler 11 Planets
• Erosion of planetesimals by gas flow
• Circumstellar dust distribution in systems with two planets in resonance
• Formation of Giant Planets
• Planet Formation by Gas-Assisted Accretion of Small Solids
• Detailed Calculations of the Efficiency of Planetesimal Accretion in the Core-Accretion Model -II: The effect of Saturn