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Liberating exomoons in white dwarf planetary systems
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Payne, Matthew J., Veras, Dimitri, Holman, Matthew J. and Gänsicke, B. T. (Boris T.) (2016) Liberating exomoons in white dwarf planetary systems. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 457 (1). pp. 217-231. doi:10.1093/mnras/stv2966
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2966
Abstract
Previous studies indicate that more than a quarter of all white dwarf (WD) atmospheres are polluted by remnant planetary material, with some WDs being observed to accrete the mass of Pluto in 106 yr. The short sinking time-scale for the pollutants indicates that the material must be frequently replenished. Moons may contribute decisively to this pollution process if they are liberated from their parent planets during the post-main-sequence evolution of the planetary systems. Here, we demonstrate that gravitational scattering events amongst planets in WD systems easily trigger moon ejection. Repeated close encounters within tenths of planetary Hill radii are highly destructive to even the most massive, close-in moons. Consequently, scattering increases both the frequency of perturbing agents in WD systems, as well as the available mass of polluting material in those systems, thereby enhancing opportunities for collision and fragmentation and providing more dynamical pathways for smaller bodies to reach the WD. Moreover, during intense scattering, planets themselves have pericentres with respect to the WD of only a fraction of an astronomical unit, causing extreme Hill-sphere contraction, and the liberation of moons into WD-grazing orbits. Many of our results are directly applicable to exomoons orbiting planets around main-sequence stars.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Subjects: | Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Physics | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | White dwarf stars , Celestial mechanics , Dynamo theory (Cosmic physics), Extrasolar planets | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0035-8711 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | 19 January 2016 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 457 | ||||||||
| Number: | 1 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 217-231 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/stv2966 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
| Funder: | Royal Society (Great Britain), Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), European Research Council (ERC), Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics | ||||||||
| Grant number: | IE140641 (Royal Society), 2015 CGPS/Pell Grant (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory), NNX13A124G (NASA), NNX10AH40G (NASA), 2012384 (BSF), 320964 (ERC) | ||||||||
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