Depletion of the Outer Asteroid Belt
Abstract
During the early history of the solar system, it is likely that the outer planets changed their distance from the sun, and hence, their influence on the asteroid belt evolved with time. The gravitational influence of Jupiter and Saturn on the orbital evolution of asteroids in the outer asteroid belt was calculated. The results show that the sweeping of mean motion resonances associated with planetary migration efficiently destabilizes orbits in the outer asteroid belt on a time scale of 10 million years. This mechanism provides an explanation for the observed depletion of asteroids in that region.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
REFERENCES AND NOTES
1
Bowell E., Asteroid Orbital Elements Database (Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, 1996).
2
Dermott S. F., Murray C. D., Nature 301 201 (1983).
A MMR occurs when the orbital period of an asteroid is a simple multiple of Jupiter's orbital period. In addition to 1:2 and 2:3, interior MMRs are also associated with other gaps in the asteroid belt.
3
Greenberg R., Scholl H., in Asteroids, Gehrels T., Ed. (Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1979), pp. 310-333;
Nobili A. M., in Asteroids II, Binzel R. P., Gehrels T., Matthews M. S., Eds. (Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1989), pp. 862-879.
4
Wisdom J., Icarus 72, 241 (1987).
5
Franklin F. A., Astron. J. 112 1247 (1996);
Morbidelli A., ibid. 111, 2453 (1996).
6
Gladman B., Duncan M., ibid. 100, 1680 (1990).
7
Lecar M., Franklin F., Soper P., Icarus 96, 234 (1992).
8
Duncan M., in Circumstellar Dust Disks and Planet Formation, Ferlet R., Vidal-Madjar A., Eds. (Editions Frontieres, Gif-sur-Yvette, 1994), pp. 245-255.
9
Malhotra R., Nature 365, 819 (1993).
10
Malhotra R., Astron. J. 110, 420 (1995).
11
Fernández J. A., Ip W.-H., Icarus 58 109 (1984);
Planet. Space Sci. 44, 431 (1996).
12
Everhart E., in Dynamics of Comets: Their Origin and Evolution, Carusi A., Valsecchi G. B., Eds. (Reidel, Boston, 1985), pp. 185-202.
13
Malhotra R., Celestial Mech. Dyn. Astron. 60, 373 (1994).
14
Integration of a test asteroid was stopped, and the asteroid was presumed to have been removed from the population, if it came within 1 Hill radius rH of a planet. Once an object is less than 1 rH from a planet, the dominant perturber is the planet, not the sun. The Hill radii of Jupiter and Saturn are 0.36 and 0.44 AU, respectively.
15
Holman M. J., Murray N. W., Astron. J. 112, 1278 (1996).
16
Malhotra R., unpublished material.
17
Because of the geometric locations of the 4:7, 3:5, and 5:8 interior MMRs, Jupiter has to migrate inward, by about 0.2 AU, to remove asteroids in the 3.5- to 3.9-AU region. However, the migration time scale and the migration scheme (linear, exponential, or other) are less constrained on the basis of the population of asteroids in this region. The long-term dynamics of the asteroids at 2:3 and 1:2 interior MMRs after the planet migration ceased may provide more insight into these questions.
18
We thank H. Zook for enthusiastic discussions. This research was performed while J.-C.L. held a National Research Council-NASA Johnson Space Center Research Associateship and R.M. was a staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), which is operated by the Universities Space Research Association under contract NASW-4574 with NASA. Support was also provided by NASA's Origins of Solar Systems Research Program under grant 4474. This paper is LPI contribution 905.
(0)eLetters
eLetters is a forum for ongoing peer review. eLetters are not edited, proofread, or indexed, but they are screened. eLetters should provide substantive and scholarly commentary on the article. Embedded figures cannot be submitted, and we discourage the use of figures within eLetters in general. If a figure is essential, please include a link to the figure within the text of the eLetter. Please read our Terms of Service before submitting an eLetter.
Log In to Submit a ResponseNo eLetters have been published for this article yet.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Science
Volume 275 | Issue 5298
17 January 1997
17 January 1997
Copyright
© 1997 American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 4 September 1996
Accepted: 15 November 1996
Published in print: 17 January 1997
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Article Usage
Altmetrics
Citations
Cite as
- Jer-Chyi Liou,
- Renu Malhotra
Export citation
Select the format you want to export the citation of this publication.
Cited by
- Migrating Planets, Science, 279, 5347, (69-72), (1998)./doi/10.1126/science.279.5347.69
Loading...
View Options
Check Access
Log in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS Members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
- Become a AAAS Member
- Activate your AAAS ID
- Purchase Access to Other Journals in the Science Family
- Account Help
Log in via OpenAthens.
Log in via Shibboleth.
More options
Register for free to read this article
As a service to the community, this article is available for free. Login or register for free to read this article.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.