Producing Distant Planets by Mutual Scattering of Planetary Embryos

TL;DR

This paper explores how planetary embryos formed in the outer solar system could be scattered into distant orbits, potentially surviving today and influencing the structure of the Kuiper belt and detached disk.

Contribution

It introduces N-body simulations demonstrating the likelihood of surviving distant planetary embryos and their impact on the solar system's outer regions.

Findings

Potential existence of sub-Earth mass embryos beyond Neptune

Embryo orbits typically have perihelia of 40-70 AU and semi-major axes less than 200 AU

Surviving embryos could be detectable or influence solar system dynamics

Abstract

It is likely that multiple bodies with masses between those of Mars and Earth ("planetary embryos") formed in the outer planetesimal disk of the solar system. Some of these were likely scattered by the giant planets into orbits with semi-major axes of hundreds of AU. Mutual torques between these embryos may lift the perihelia of some of them beyond the orbit of Neptune, where they are no longer perturbed by the giant planets so their semi-major axes are frozen in place. We conduct N-body simulations of this process, and its effect on smaller planetesimals in the region of the giant planets and the Kuiper belt. We find that (i) there is a significant possibility that one sub-Earth mass embryo, or possibly more, is still present in the outer solar system; (ii) the orbit of the surviving embryo(s) typically has perihelion of 40--70 AU, semi-major axis less than 200 AU, and inclination less than 30 degrees; (iii) it is likely that any surviving embryos could be detected by current or planned optical surveys or have a significant effect on solar-system ephemerides; (iv) whether or not an embryo has survived to the present day, their dynamical influence earlier in the history of the solar system can explain the properties of the detached disk (defined in this paper as containing objects with perihelia > 38 AU and semi-major axes between 80 and 500 AU).