Consequences of dynamically unstable moons in extrasolar systems

TL;DR

This paper explores the fate of moons around rocky exoplanets, showing that tidal forces often lead to moon-planet collisions or escapes, with potential implications for observed dust clouds and planetary habitability.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the parameter space leading to moon unbinding and the long-term outcomes, including the effects of atmospheric tides and collision consequences.

Findings

Most unbound moons eventually collide with their parent planet.

Dust from collisions can produce observable transient clouds.

Late collisions may sterilize habitable planets.

Abstract

Moons orbiting rocky exoplanets in compact orbits about other stars experience an accelerated tidal evolution, and can either merge with their parent planet or reach the limit of dynamical instability within a Hubble time. We review the parameter space over which moons become unbound, including the effects of atmospheric tides on the planetary spin. We find that such tides can change the final outcome from merger to escape, albeit over a limited parameter space. We also follow the further evolution of unbound moons, and demonstrate that the overwhelmingly most likely long-term outcome is that the unbound moon returns to collide with its original parent planet. The dust released by such a collision is estimated to reach optical depths approximately 0.001, exhibit characteristic temperatures of a few hundred degrees Kelvin, and last for a few thousand years. These properties make such events an attractive model for the emerging class of middle-aged main sequence stars that are observed to show transient clouds of warm dust. Furthermore, a late collision between a planet and a returning moon on a hyperbolic orbit may sterilise an otherwise habitable planet.