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The origin of Jovian and Saturnian satellites in accretion disks

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Abstract

The properties of gas-dust disks that surrounded Jupiter and Saturn during the final stage of their formation are analyzed. The sizes of the disks are determined by the total planetocentric angular momentum of the matter accreted by planets and correspond to the sizes of the orbits of their largest satellites. The mass of the solid component of disks is limited from below by the total mass of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter (no less than 4 × 1026 g) and the mass of the largest Saturnian satellites (1.4 × 1026 g), whereas the mass of the gaseous component is limited from above by the amount of hydrogen and helium that could have been later lost by the disks. Our analysis of the known mechanisms of dissipation of gas showed that its simultaneous content in the disks relative to the solid component was much lower than the corresponding gas-to-solid ratio in the Sun. A certain amount of solid compounds (including ice) could have been brought into the disks with planetesimals, which had undergone mutual collisions in the neighborhood of giant planets and served as germs of satellites. The bulk of solid matter appears to have been captured into disks when the latter were crossed by smaller and intermediate-sized planetesimals, which then became parts of the satellites.

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Original Russian Text © E.L. Ruskoi, 2006, published in Astronomicheskii Vestnik, 2006, Vol. 40, No.6, pp. 499–504.

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Ruskol, E.L. The origin of Jovian and Saturnian satellites in accretion disks. Sol Syst Res 40, 456–461 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0038094606060025

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