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J. J. Lissauer, E. V. Quintana (NASA Ames)
We have numerically simulated the late stages of terrestrial planet growth in circumbinary disks around close binary star systems with apastron distances 0.05 AU \leq QB \leq 0.4 AU. In each simulation, the sum of the masses of the two stars is 1 M_{\odot}, and one or two giant planets are included. The initial disk of planetary embryos is the same as that used for simulating the late stages of terrestrial planet formation within our Solar System by Chambers (2001, Icarus 152, 205) and around each individual component of the \alpha Centauri AB binary system by Quintana et al. (2002, Ap.J. 576, 982). Multiple simulations are performed for each binary star system under study, and our results are statistically compared to a set of terrestrial planet formation simulations in the Sun-Jupiter-Saturn system. The planetary systems formed around the closest binaries that we simulated are very similar to those around single stars, whereas binary stars with larger stellar separations and eccentricities tend to form systems with fewer planets, especially interior to 1 AU.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #2
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.