Monday, March 15, 2010 at 4:00 PM

JILA Auditorium

Robin Canup, Southwest Research Inst

"Satellite Formation"

Abstract:

The numerous principal satellites in our solar system are believed to have formed near the end of the planet formation era, and as such their properties can provide insight into planet formation processes. In this talk I will discuss two primary modes of satellite formation. For solid planets, giant impacts lead to the production of a wide range of planet-satellite systems, with the Earth-Moon pair being the best studied example. In contrast, the regular satellites of the gas giant planets likely formed within circumplanetary disks of H and He gas that were byproducts of the planet's own gas accretion. Satellite growth within such disks produces satellite systems with similar overall properties, including notably a common value for the total mass in satellites compared to the mass of the host planet. Here I will focus on the satellite systems at Jupiter and Saturn, as well as on the related implications for the origin of Saturn's rings.

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