In Situ formation of Icy Moons of Uranus and Neptune
Open accessAbstract
Satellites of giant planets have been thought to form in gaseous circumplanetary disks (CPDs) during the late planet-formation phase, but it was unknown whether or not smaller-mass planets such as the ice giants could form such disks, and thus moons, there. We combined radiative hydrodynamical simulations with satellite population synthesis to investigate the question in the case of Uranus and Neptune. For both ice giants we found that a gaseous CPD is created at the end of their formation. The population synthesis confirmed that Uranian-like, icy, prograde satellite system could form in these CPDs within a couple of 10 5 yr. This means that Neptune could have a Uranian-like moon system originally that was wiped away by the capture of Triton. Furthermore, the current moons of Uranus can be reproduced by our model without the need for planet–planet impact to create a debris disk for the moons to grow. These results highlight that even ice giants—among the most common mass category of exoplanets—can also form satellites, opening a way to a potentially much larger population of exomoons than previously thought.
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If moons are present around gas giants, typical timescales for in-situ formation in a gaseous circumplanetary disk range from 10^5-10^6 years for gas-starved disk models down to 10^2-10^4 years for dense circumplanetary disks.
“If moons are present around gas giants, typical timescales for in-situ formation in a gaseous circumplanetary disk ranges from 10 5 -10 6 years for gas starved-disk models (Canup and Ward 2002;Szulágyi et al., 2018) down to 10 2 -10 4 years for dense circumplanetary disks (Lunine and Stevenson 1982).”
From A Self-Gravitating Exoring Around J1407b and Implications for In-Situ Exomoon Formation (2022) · cites this paper as Szulágyi et al., 2018
The Abstract and Conclusion report that moons can form in gaseous circumplanetary disks around Uranus and Neptune within a few hundred thousand years, consistent with part of the cited 10^5–10^6-year range. The paper does not identify this result as a typical timescale for gas-starved models around gas giants; the citing sentence attributes the shorter dense-disk range to a different source. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
A Self-Gravitating Exoring Around J1407b and Implications for In-Situ Exomoon Formation
Sutton, P. J., Albery, B., & Muff, J. (2022) · Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences · doi:10.3389/fspas.2022.819933 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Szulágyi, J., Cilibrasi, M., & Mayer, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Szulágyi, Judit
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2018-11-19
- Volume
- 868
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- L13
- ISSN
- 2041-8205 (ISSN-L)
- 2041-8213
- OpenAlex
- W2901896195
- Cited by
- 38
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 2.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
- Keywords
- icy satellites, Uranus, Neptune, ice giants, circumplanetary disks, satellite formation flying, radiation hydrodynamics, exomoons, planet formation
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