pith. sign in

arxiv: 1709.00418 · v1 · pith:UWHVFGMAnew · submitted 2017-09-01 · 🌌 astro-ph.EP · astro-ph.GA· astro-ph.SR· physics.geo-ph

Was Planet 9 captured in the Sun's natal star-forming region?

classification 🌌 astro-ph.EP astro-ph.GAastro-ph.SRphysics.geo-ph
keywords planetcapturecapturedstar-formingconditionsfflopfindinitial
0
0 comments X
read the original abstract

The presence of an unseen `Planet 9' on the outskirts of the Solar system has been invoked to explain the unexpected clustering of the orbits of several Edgeworth--Kuiper Belt Objects. We use $N$-body simulations to investigate the probability that Planet 9 was a free-floating planet (FFLOP) that was captured by the Sun in its birth star-formation environment. We find that only 1 - 6 per cent of FFLOPs are ensnared by stars, even with the most optimal initial conditions for capture in star-forming regions (one FFLOP per star, and highly correlated stellar velocities to facilitate capture). Depending on the initial conditions of the star-forming regions, only 5 - 10 of 10000 planets are captured onto orbits that lie within the constraints for Planet 9. When we apply an additional environmental constraint for Solar system formation - namely the injection of short-lived radioisotopes into the Sun's protoplanetary disc from supernovae - we find that the probability for the capture of Planet 9 to be almost zero.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.