arXiv subjects

Sean N. Raymond

Publications and source records attributed to Sean N. Raymond.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Crash Chronicles: relative contribution from comets and carbonaceous asteroids to Earth's volatile budget in the context of an Early Instability

Recent models of solar system formation suggest that a dynamical instability among the giant planets happened within the first 100 Myr after disk dispersal, perhaps before the Moon-forming impact. As a direct consequence, a bombardment of volatile-rich impactors may have taken place on Earth before internal and atmospheric reservoirs were decoupled. However, such a timing has been interpreted to potentially be at odds with the disparate inventories of Xe isotopes in Earth's mantle compared to its atmosphere. This study aims to assess the dynamical effects of an Early Instability on the delivery of carbonaceous asteroids and comets to Earth, and address the implications for the Earth's volatile budget. We perform 20 high-resolution dynamical simulations of solar system formation from the time of gas disk dispersal, each starting with 1600 carbonaceous asteroids and 10000 comets, taking into account the dynamical perturbations from an early giant planet instability. Before the Moon-forming impact, the cumulative collision rate of comets with Earth is about 4 orders of magnitude lower than that of carbonaceous asteroids. After the Moon-forming impact, this ratio either decreases or increases, often by orders of magnitude, depending on the dynamics of individual simulations. An increase in the relative contribution of comets happens in 30\% of our simulations. In these cases, the delivery of noble gases from each source is comparable, given that the abundance of 132Xe is 3 orders of magnitude greater in comets than in carbonaceous chondrites. The increase in cometary flux relative to carbonaceous asteroids at late times may thus offer an explanation for the Xe signature dichotomy between the Earth's mantle and atmosphere.

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arXiv2024

Passing Stars as an Important Driver of Paleoclimate and the Solar System's Orbital Evolution

Reconstructions of the paleoclimate indicate that ancient climatic fluctuations on Earth are often correlated with variations in its orbital elements. However, the chaos inherent in the solar system's orbital evolution prevents numerical simulations from confidently predicting Earth's past orbital evolution beyond 50-100 Myrs. Gravitational interactions among the Sun's planets and asteroids are believed to set this limiting time horizon, but most prior works approximate the solar system as an isolated system and neglect our surrounding Galaxy. Here we present simulations that include the Sun's nearby stellar population, and we find that close-passing field stars alter our entire planetary system's orbital evolution via their gravitational perturbations on the giant planets. This shortens the timespan over which Earth's orbital evolution can be definitively known by a further ~10%. In particular, in simulations that include an exceptionally close passage of the Sun-like star HD 7977 2.8 Myrs ago, new sequences of Earth's orbital evolution become possible in epochs before ~50 Myrs ago, which includes the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Thus, simulations predicting Earth's past orbital evolution before ~50 Myrs ago must consider the additional uncertainty from passing stars, which can open new regimes of past orbital evolution not seen in previous modeling efforts.

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arXiv2024

On the growth and evolution of low-mass planets in pressure bumps

Observations of protoplanetary discs have revealed dust rings which are likely due to the presence of pressure bumps in the disc. Because these structures tend to trap drifting pebbles, it has been proposed that pressure bumps may play an important role in the planet formation process. In this paper, we investigate the orbital evolution of a $0.1$ $M_\oplus$ protoplanet embedded in a pressure bump using 2-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of protoplanetary discs consisting of gas and pebbles. We examine the role of thermal forces generated by the pebble accretion-induced heat release, taking into account the feedback between luminosity and eccentricity. We also study the effect of the pebble-scattered flow on the planet's orbital evolution. Due to accumulation of pebbles at the pressure bump, the planet's accretion luminosity is high enough to induce significant eccentricity growth through thermal forces. Accretion luminosity is also responsible for vortex formation at the planet position through baroclinic effects, which cause the planet escape from the dust ring if dust feedback onto the gas is neglected. Including the effect of the dust back-reaction leads to weaker vortices, which enable the planet to remain close to the pressure maximum on an eccentric orbit. Simulations in which the planet mass is allowed to increase as a consequence of pebble accretion resulted in the formation of giant planet cores with mass in the range $5-20$ $M_\oplus$ over $\sim 2\times 10^4$ yrs. This occurs for moderate values of the Stokes number $St \approx 0.01$ such that the pebble drift velocity is not too high and the dust ring mass not too small. Our results suggest that pressure bumps mays be preferred locations for the formation of giant planets, but this requires a moderate level of grain growth within the disc.

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arXiv2023

Future trajectories of the Solar System: dynamical simulations of stellar encounters within 100 au

Given the inexorable increase in the Sun's luminosity, Earth will exit the habitable zone in ~1 Gyr. There is a negligible chance that Earth's orbit will change during that time through internal Solar System dynamics. However, there is a ~1% chance per Gyr that a star will pass within 100 au of the Sun. Here, we use N-body simulations to evaluate the possible evolutionary pathways of the planets under the perturbation from a close stellar passage. We find a ~92% chance that all eight planets will survive on orbits similar to their current ones if a star passes within 100 au of the Sun. Yet a passing star may disrupt the Solar System, by directly perturbing the planets' orbits or by triggering a dynamical instability. Mercury is the most fragile, with a destruction rate (usually via collision with the Sun) higher than that of the four giant planets combined. The most probable destructive pathways for Earth are to undergo a giant impact (with the Moon or Venus) or to collide with the Sun. Each planet may find itself on a very different orbit than its present-day one, in some cases with high eccentricities or inclinations. There is a small chance that Earth could end up on a more distant (colder) orbit, through re-shuffling of the system's orbital architecture, ejection into interstellar space (or into the Oort cloud), or capture by the passing star. We quantify plausible outcomes for the post-flyby Solar System.

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arXiv2023

A race against the clock: Constraining the timing of cometary bombardment relative to Earth's growth

Comets are considered a potential source of inner solar system volatiles, but the timing of this delivery relative to that of Earth's accretion is still poorly understood. Measurements of xenon isotopes in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko revealed that comets partly contributed to the Earth's atmosphere. However, there is no conclusive evidence of a significant cometary component in the Earth's mantle. These geochemical constraints would favour a contribution of comets mainly occurring after the last stages of Earth's formation. Here, we evaluate whether dynamical simulations satisfy these constraints in the context of an Early Instability model. We perform dynamical simulations of the solar system, calculate the probability of collision between comets and Earth analogs component embryos through time and estimate the total cometary mass accreted in Earth analogs as a function of time. While our results are in excellent agreement with geochemical constraints, we also demonstrate that the contribution of comets on Earth might have been delayed with respect to the timing of the instability, due to a stochastic component of the bombardment. More importantly, we show that it is possible that enough cometary mass has been brought to Earth after it had finished forming so that the xenon constraint is not necessarily in conflict with an Early Instability scenario. However, it appears very likely that a few comets were delivered to Earth early in its accretion history, thus contributing to the mantle's budget. Finally, we compare the delivery of cometary material on Earth to Venus and Mars. These results emphasize the stochastic nature of the cometary bombardment in the inner solar system.

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arXiv2023

Oort cloud (exo)planets

Dynamical instabilities among giant planets are thought to be nearly ubiquitous, and culminate in the ejection of one or more planets into interstellar space. Here we perform N-body simulations of dynamical instabilities while accounting for torques from the galactic tidal field. We find that a fraction of planets that would otherwise have been ejected are instead trapped on very wide orbits analogous to those of Oort cloud comets. The fraction of ejected planets that are trapped ranges from 1-10%, depending on the initial planetary mass distribution. The local galactic density has a modest effect on the trapping efficiency and the orbital radii of trapped planets. The majority of Oort cloud planets survive for Gyr timescales. Taking into account the demographics of exoplanets, we estimate that one in every 200-3000 stars could host an Oort cloud planet. This value is likely an overestimate, as we do not account for instabilities that take place at early enough times to be affected by their host stars' birth cluster, or planet stripping from passing stars. If the Solar System's dynamical instability happened after birth cluster dissolution, there is a ~7% chance that an ice giant was captured in the Sun's Oort cloud.

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arXiv2023

Survival and dynamics of rings of co-orbital planets under perturbations

In co-orbital planetary systems, two or more planets share the same orbit around their star. Here we test the dynamical stability of co-orbital rings of planets perturbed by outside forces. We test two setups: i) 'stationary' rings of planets that, when unperturbed, remain equally-spaced along their orbit; and ii) horseshoe constellation systems, in which planets are continually undergoing horseshoe librations with their immediate neighbors. We show that a single rogue planet crossing the planets' orbit more massive than a few lunar masses (0.01-0.04 Earth masses) systematically disrupts a co-orbital ring of 6, 9, 18, or 42 Earth-mass planets located at 1 au. Stationary rings are more resistant to perturbations than horseshoe constellations, yet when perturbed they can transform into stable horseshoe constellation systems. Given sufficient time, any co-orbital ring system will be perturbed into either becoming a horseshoe constellation or complete destabilization.

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arXiv2023

Constellations of co-orbital planets: horseshoe dynamics, long-term stability, transit timing variations, and potential as SETI beacons

Co-orbital systems contain two or more bodies sharing the same orbit around a planet or star. The best-known flavors of co-orbital systems are tadpoles (in which two bodies' angular separations oscillate about the L4/L5 Lagrange points $60^\circ$ apart) and horseshoes (with two bodies periodically exchanging orbital energy to trace out a horseshoe shape in a co-rotating frame). Here, we use N-body simulations to explore the parameter space of many-planet horseshoe systems. We show that up to 24 equal-mass, Earth-mass planets can share the same orbit at 1 au, following a complex pattern in which neighboring planets undergo horseshoe oscillations. We explore the dynamics of horseshoe constellations, and show that they can remain stable for billions of years and even persist through their stars' post-main sequence evolution. With sufficient observations, they can be identified through their large-amplitude, correlated transit timing variations. Given their longevity and exotic orbital architectures, horseshoe constellations may represent potential SETI beacons.

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arXiv2023

Comparisons of the core and mantle compositions of earth analogs from different terrestrial planet formation scenarios

The chemical compositions of Earth's core and mantle provide insight into the processes that led to their formation. N-body simulations, on the other hand, generally do not contain chemical information, and seek to only reproduce the masses and orbits of the terrestrial planets. These simulations can be grouped into four potentially viable scenarios of Solar System formation (Classical, Annulus, Grand Tack, and Early Instability) for which we compile a total of 433 N-body simulations. We relate the outputs of these simulations to the chemistry of Earth's core and mantle using a melt-scaling law combined with a multi-stage model of core formation. We find the compositions of Earth analogs to be largely governed by the fraction of equilibrating embryo cores and the initial embryo masses in N-body simulations. Simulation type may be important when considering magma ocean lifetimes, where Grand Tack simulations have the largest amounts of material accreted after the last giant impact. However, we cannot rule out any accretion scenarios or initial embryo masses due to the sensitivity of Earth's mantle composition to different parameters and the stochastic nature of N-body simulations. Comparing the last embryo impacts experienced by Earth analogs to specific Moon-forming scenarios, we find the characteristics of the Moon-forming impact are dependent on the initial conditions in N-body simulations where larger initial embryo masses promote larger and slower Moon-forming impactors. Mars-sized initial embryos are most consistent with the canonical hit-and-run scenario onto a solid mantle. Our results suggest that constraining the fraction of equilibrating impactor core and the initial embryo masses in N-body simulations could be significant for understanding both Earth's accretion history and characteristics of the Moon-forming impact.

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arXiv2023

Late Accretion of Ceres-like Asteroids and Their Implantation into the Outer Main Belt

Low-albedo asteroids preserve a record of the primordial solar system planetesimals and the conditions in which the solar nebula was active. However, the origin and evolution of these asteroids are not well-constrained. Here we measured visible and near-infrared (0.5 - 4.0 microns) spectra of low-albedo asteroids in the mid-outer main belt. We show that numerous large (d > 100 km) and dark (geometric albedo < 0.09) asteroids exterior to the dwarf planet Ceres' orbit share the same spectral features, and presumably compositions, as Ceres. We also developed a thermal evolution model that demonstrates that these Ceres-like asteroids have highly-porous interiors, accreted relatively late at 1.5 - 3.5 Myr after the formation of calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions, and experienced maximum interior temperatures of < 900 K. Ceres-like asteroids are localized in a confined heliocentric region between 3.0 - 3.4 au but were likely implanted from more distant regions of the solar system during the giant planet's dynamical instability.

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arXiv2023

Mercury's formation within the Early Instability Scenario

The inner solar system's modern orbital architecture provides inferences into the epoch of terrestrial planet formation; a ~100 Myr time period of planet growth via collisions with planetesimals and other proto-planets. While classic numerical simulations of this scenario adequately reproduced the correct number of terrestrial worlds, their semi-major axes and approximate formation timescales, they struggled to replicate the Earth-Mars and Venus-Mercury mass ratios. In a series of past independent investigations, we demonstrated that Mars' mass is possibly the result of Jupiter and Saturn's early orbital evolution, while Mercury's diminutive size might be the consequence of a primordial mass deficit in the region. Here, we combine these ideas in a single modeled scenario designed to simultaneously reproduce the formation of all four terrestrial planets and the modern orbits of the giant planets in broad strokes. By evaluating our Mercury analogs' core mass fractions, masses, and orbital offsets from Venus, we favor a scenario where Mercury forms through a series of violent erosive collisions between a number of ~Mercury-mass embryos in the inner part of the terrestrial disk. We also compare cases where the gas giants begin the simulation locked in a compact 3:2 resonant configuration to a more relaxed 2:1 orientation and find the former to be more successful. In 2:1 cases, the entire Mercury-forming region is often depleted due to strong sweeping secular resonances that also tend to overly excite the orbits of Earth and Venus as they grow. While our model is quite successful at replicating Mercury's massive core and dynamically isolated orbit, the planets' low mass remains extremely challenging to match. Finally, we discuss the merits and drawbacks of alternative evolutionary scenarios and initial disk conditions.

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arXiv2022

On averaging eccentric orbits: Implications for the long-term thermal evolution of comets

One of the common approximations in long-term evolution studies of small bodies is the use of circular orbits averaging the actual eccentric ones, facilitating the coupling of processes with very different timescales, such as the orbital changes and the thermal processing. Here we test a number of averaging schemes for elliptic orbits in the context of the long-term evolution of comets, aiming to identify the one that best reproduces the elliptic orbits' heating patterns and the surface and subsurface temperature distributions. We use a simplified thermal evolution model applied on simulated comets both on elliptic and on their equivalent averaged circular orbits, in a range of orbital parameter space relevant to the inner solar system. We find that time averaging schemes are more adequate than spatial averaging ones. Circular orbits created by means of a time average of the equilibrium temperature approximate efficiently the subsurface temperature distributions of elliptic orbits in a large area of the orbital parameter space, rendering them a powerful tool for averaging elliptic orbits.

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arXiv2022

The gateway from Centaurs to Jupiter-family Comets: thermal and dynamical evolution

It was recently proposed that there exists a "gateway" in the orbital parameter space through which Centaurs transition to Jupiter-family Comets (JFCs). Further studies have implied that the majority of objects that eventually evolve into JFCs should leave the Centaur population through this gateway. This may be naively interpreted as gateway Centaurs being pristine progenitors of JFCs. This is the point we want to address in this work. We show that the opposite is true: gateway Centaurs are, on average, more thermally processed than the rest of the population of Centaurs crossing Jupiter's orbit. Using a dynamically-validated JFC population, we find that only $\sim 20\%$ of Centaurs pass through the gateway prior to becoming JFCs, in accordance with previous studies. We show that more than half of JFC dynamical clones entering the gateway for the first time have already been JFCs -they simply avoided the gateway on their first pass into the inner solar system. By coupling a thermal evolution model to the orbital evolution of JFC dynamical clones, we find a higher than 50\% chance that the layer currently contributing to the observed activity of gateway objects has been physically and chemically altered, due to previously sustained thermal processing. We further illustrate this effect by examining dynamical clones that match the present-day orbits of 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1, P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS), and P/2008 CL94 (Lemmon).

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arXiv2022

Simultaneous gas accretion onto a pair of giant planets: Impact on their final mass and on the protoplanetary disk structure

Several planetary systems are known to host multiple giant planets. However, when two giant planets are accreting from the same disk, it is unclear what effect the presence of the second planet has on the gas accretion process of both planets. In this paper we perform long-term 2D isothermal hydrodynamical simulations (over more than 0.5 Myrs) with the FARGO-2D1D code, considering two non-migrating planets accreting from the same gaseous disk. We find that the evolution of the planets' mass ratio depends on gap formation. However, in all cases, when the planets start accreting at the same time, they end up with very similar masses (0.9 $<m_{p,out}/m_{p,in}<$ 1.1 after 0.5 Myrs). Delaying the onset of accretion of one planet allows the planets' mass ratio to reach larger values initially, but they quickly converge to similar masses afterward (0.8 $<m_{p,out}/m_{p,in}<$ 2 in $10^5$ yrs). In order to reproduce the more diverse observed mass ratios of exoplanets, the planets must start accreting gas at different times, and their accretion must be stopped quickly after the beginning of runaway gas accretion (less than 0.5 Myrs), for example via disk dispersal. The evolution of the planets' mass ratio can have an important impact on the dynamics of the system and may constrain the formation history of Jupiter and Saturn.

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arXiv2022

Mathematical encoding within multi-resonant planetary systems as SETI beacons

How might an advanced alien civilization manipulate the orbits within a planetary system to create a durable signpost that communicates its existence? While it is still debated whether such a purposeful advertisement would be prudent and wise, we propose that mean-motion resonances between neighboring planets -- with orbital periods that form integer ratios -- could in principle be used to encode simple sequences that one would not expect to form in nature. In this Letter we build four multi-resonant planetary systems and test their long-term orbital stability. The four systems each contain 6 or 7 planets and consist of: (i) consecutive integers from 1 to 6; (ii) prime numbers from 2 to 11; (iii) the Fibonacci sequence from 1 to 13; and (iv) the Lazy Caterer sequence from 1 to 16. We built each system using N-body simulations with artificial migration forces. We evaluated the stability of each system over the full 10 Gyr integration of the Sun's main sequence phase. We then tested the stability of these systems for an additional 10 Gyr, during and after post-main sequence evolution of the central stars (assumed to be Sun-like) to their final, white dwarf phase. The only system that was destabilized was the consecutive integer sequence (system i). The other three sequences therefore represent potential SETI beacons.

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arXiv2022

Early Solar System instability triggered by dispersal of the gaseous disk

The Solar System's orbital structure is thought to have been sculpted by an episode of dynamical instability among the giant planets. However, the instability trigger and timing have not been clearly established. Hydrodynamical modeling has shown that while the Sun's gaseous protoplanetary disk was present the giant planets migrated into a compact orbital configuration in a chain of resonances. Here we use dynamical simulations to show that the giant planets' instability was likely triggered by the dispersal of the gaseous disk. As the disk evaporated from the inside-out, its inner edge swept successively across and dynamically perturbed each planet's orbit in turn. The associated orbital shift caused a dynamical compression of the exterior part of the system, ultimately triggering instability. The final orbits of our simulated systems match those of the Solar System for a viable range of astrophysical parameters. The giant planet instability therefore took place as the gaseous disk dissipated, constrained by astronomical observations to be a few to ten million years after the birth of the Solar System. Terrestrial planet formation would not complete until after such an early giant planet instability; the growing terrestrial planets may even have been sculpted by its perturbations, explaining the small mass of Mars relative to Earth.

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arXiv2022

Chemical Habitability: Supply and Retention of Life's Essential Elements During Planet Formation

Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Sulfur (CHNOPS) play key roles in the origin and proliferation of life on Earth. Given the universality of physics and chemistry, not least the ubiquity of water as a solvent and carbon as a backbone of complex molecules, CHNOPS are likely crucial to most habitable worlds. To help guide and inform the search for potentially habitable and ultimately inhabited environments, we begin by summarizing the CHNOPS budget of various reservoirs on Earth, their role in shaping our biosphere, and their origins in the Solar Nebula. We then synthesize our current understanding of how these elements behave and are distributed in diverse astrophysical settings, tracing their journeys from synthesis in dying stars to molecular clouds, protoplanetary settings, and ultimately temperate rocky planets around main sequence stars. We end by identifying key branching points during this journey, highlighting instances where a forming planets' distribution of CHNOPS can be altered dramatically, and speculating about the consequences for the chemical habitability of these worlds.

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arXiv2022

Thermal processing of Jupiter Family Comets during their chaotic orbital evolution

Evidence for cometary activity beyond Jupiter and Saturn's orbits -- such as that observed for Centaurs and long period comets -- suggests that the thermal processing of comet nuclei starts long before they enter the inner Solar System, where they are typically observed and monitored. Such observations raise questions as to the depth of unprocessed material, and whether the activity of JFCs can be representative of any primitive material. Here we model the coupled thermal and dynamical evolution of Jupiter Family Comets (JFCs), from the moment they leave their outer Solar System reservoirs until their ejection into interstellar space. We apply a thermal evolution model to a sample of simulated JFCs obtained from dynamical simulations (arXiv:1706.07447) that successfully reproduce the orbital distribution of observed JFCs. We show that due to the stochastic nature of comet trajectories toward the inner solar system, all simulated JFCs undergo multiple heating episodes resulting in significant modifications of their initial volatile contents. A statistical analysis constrains the extent of such processing. We suggest that primordial condensed hypervolatile ices should be entirely lost from the layers that contribute to cometary activity observed today. Our results demonstrate that understanding the orbital (and thus, heating) history of JFCs is essential when putting observations in a broader context.

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