Article (Scientific journals)
An upper limit on late accretion and water delivery in the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet system
Raymond, Sean N.; Izidoro, Andre; Bolmont, Emeline et al.
2021In Nature Astronomy
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Abstract :
[en] The TRAPPIST-1 system contains seven roughly Earth-sized planets locked in a multiresonant orbital configuration[SUP]1,2[/SUP], which has enabled precise measurements of the planets' masses and constrained their compositions[SUP]3[/SUP]. Here we use the system's fragile orbital structure to place robust upper limits on the planets' bombardment histories. We use N-body simulations to show how perturbations from additional objects can break the multiresonant configuration by either triggering dynamical instability or simply removing the planets from resonance. The planets cannot have interacted with more than ~5% of one Earth mass (M[SUB]⊕[/SUB]) in planetesimals—or a single rogue planet more massive than Earth's Moon—without disrupting their resonant orbital structure. This implies an upper limit of 10[SUP]−4[/SUP]M[SUB]⊕[/SUB] to 10[SUP]−2[/SUP] M[SUB]⊕[/SUB] of late accretion on each planet since the dispersal of the system's gaseous disk. This is comparable to (or less than) the late accretion on Earth after the Moon-forming impact[SUP]4,5[/SUP], and demonstrates that the growth of the TRAPPIST-1 planets was complete in just a few million years, roughly an order of magnitude faster than that of the Earth[SUP]6,7[/SUP]. Our results imply that any large water reservoirs on the TRAPPIST-1 planets must have been incorporated during their formation in the gaseous disk.
Disciplines :
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Author, co-author :
Raymond, Sean N.;  Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, Pessac, France
Izidoro, Andre;  Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
Bolmont, Emeline;  Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, Sauverny, Switzerland
Dorn, Caroline;  University of Zurich, Institute of Computational Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland
Selsis, Franck;  Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, Pessac, France
Turbet, Martin;  Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, Sauverny, Switzerland
Agol, Eric;  Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Barth, Patrick;  Centre for Exoplanet Science, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK ; SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK ; School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
Carone, Ludmila;  Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany
Dasgupta, Rajdeep;  Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
Gillon, Michaël  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Exotic
Grimm, Simon L.;  Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland)
Language :
English
Title :
An upper limit on late accretion and water delivery in the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet system
Publication date :
01 December 2021
Journal title :
Nature Astronomy
eISSN :
2397-3366
Publisher :
Springer Nature
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 11 January 2022

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