Final destination: the rol of gravitational interactions in planet survival during and after RGB

MARÍA PAULA RONCO; SCHREIBER, MATTHIAS R.; GIUPPONE, CRISTIAN A.; VERAS, DIMITRI; JORGE CUADRA; OCTAVIO MIGUEL GUILERA

Maldonado - Punta del Este

Congreso; X Taller de Ciencias Planetarias; 2020

CURE - Centro Universitario Regional del Este

Thefinal fate of our Sun is a well known fact: in about 6 Giga yearsfrom now our star will evolve into a red giant and finally end itslife as a white dwarf. This stellar metamorphosis will occur tovirtually all currently known host stars of planetary systems and istherefore crucial for the fate of nearly all known planetary systems.It is clear that the innermost planets with separations below oneastronomical unit will be engulfed and evaporated during the giantphase and that planets located at orbital distances of severalastronomical units will survive the stellar evolution of their hoststars. However, the final destiny of planets located in between theseextremes, at a few astronomical units, is less clear as tidal forcesand orbit expansion due to stellar mass loss can nearly cancel outeach other. These critical cases have so far been studiedsemi-analytically and only considering a single planet. We herepresent preliminary results on the evolution of a planetary systemaffected by mass loss and stellar tides incorporating both phenomenasimultaneously for the first time in an N-body code. In particular,we analyze the role played by the gravitational interactions betweena Jupiter-like outer planet and a less massive inner planetconcerning the survival of the latter.p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 115% }