Oct 142016
 

Mentioned hereabouts nearly two years ago, the exoplant J1407B is many times more massive than Jupiter (60 to 100 times). What makes it interesting is the ring system… about 1 AU in diameter. The problem some astronomers had with the system is that the exoplanet is on a terribly elliptical orbit around the primary… dips in less than 2 AU at perihelion, and goes out to about 8 AU at aphelion. This means that at perihelion, one edge of the rings wound be at a bit more than 1 AU from the primary, while the outer edge would be more than 2 AU out. This *should* shred the ring system in very short order.

So, someone ran a simulation. And as it turns out, if the rings are in retrograde orbit, they are disrupted by the close passage… then settle back down. If they are prograde, each passage tears the rings to flinders.

 

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 Posted by at 9:09 pm