Studying the Influence of Dynamic Instabilities on Terrestrial Planetary Formation

Matthew Clement, Ohio Supercomputer Center

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The solar system’s outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) formed in just a few million years, while gas was still present in the Sun’s primordial protoplanetary disk.  Though the evolution of these outer planets is well studied, the leading models seem to be incompatible with the solar system’s terrestrial system (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars).  By performing thousands of N-body simulations of an orbital instability in the outer solar system occurring in conjunction with terrestrial planet formation, we presented the first complete evolutionary model for the solar system which explains both its inner and outer regimes.  Additionally, we conducted the largest ever suite of planet formation simulations using a realistic code which accounts for the effects of fragmentation as bodies collide.  Finally, we used gpu acceleration [6] to accurately model dynamics down to realistic mass resolutions during the solar system’s earliest epoch, and in the young asteroid belt.