Role of gaseous giants in the dynamical evolution of terrestrial planets and water delivery in the habitable zone

SÁNCHEZ, M. B.; DE ELÍA, G. C.; DARRIBA, L. A.

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2018 vol. 481 p. 1281 - 1289

0035-8711

In the present research, we study the effects of a single giant planet in the dynamical evolution of water-rich embryos and planetesimals,located beyond the snow line of systems around Sun-like stars, in orderto determine what kind of terrestrial-like planets could be formed inthe habitable zone (hereafter HZ) of these systems. To do this, we carryout N-body simulations of planetary accretion, considering that the gashas been already dissipated from the disk and a single giant planet hasbeen formed beyond the snow line of the system, at 3 au. We find that agiant planet with a value of mass between Saturn-mass and Jupiter-mass,represents a limit from which the amount of water-rich embryos thatmoves inward from beyond the snow line starts to decrease. From this,our research suggests that giant planets more massive than oneJupiter-mass become efficient dynamical barriers to inward-migratingwater-rich embryos. Moreover, we infer that the number of these embryosthat survive in the HZ significantly decreases for systems that host agiant planet more massive than one Jupiter-mass. This result hasimportant consequences concerning the formation of terrestrial-likeplanets in the HZ with very high water contents and could provide aselection criteria in the search of potentially habitable exoplanets insystems that host a gaseous giant around solar-type stars.