Issue |
A&A
Volume 635, March 2020
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A37 | |
Number of page(s) | 8 | |
Section | Planets and planetary systems | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936967 | |
Published online | 03 March 2020 |
Why do warm Neptunes present nonzero eccentricity?
1
CFisUC, Department of Physics, University of Coimbra,
3004-516
Coimbra,
Portugal
e-mail: acor@uc.pt
2
ASD, IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Université,
77 Av. Denfert-Rochereau,
75014
Paris,
France
3
Observatoire de l’Université de Genève,
51 chemin des Maillettes,
1290
Sauverny,
Switzerland
Received:
21
October
2019
Accepted:
17
January
2020
Most Neptune-mass planets in close-in orbits (orbital periods less than a few days) present nonzero eccentricity, typically around 0.15. This is somehow unexpected, as these planets undergo strong tidal dissipation that should circularize their orbits in a timescale shorter than the age of the system. In this paper we discuss some mechanisms that can oppose to bodily tides, namely, thermal atmospheric tides, evaporation of the atmosphere, and excitation from a distant companion. In the first two cases, the eccentricity can increase consistently, while in the last one, the eccentricity can only be excited for a limited amount of time (that may nevertheless exceed the age of the system). We show the limitations of these different mechanisms and how some of them could, depending on specific properties of the observed planetary systems, account for their presently observed eccentricities.
Key words: celestial mechanics / planet-star interactions / planets and satellites: dynamical evolution and stability / planets and satellites: atmospheres
© ESO 2020
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.