Europlanet Science Congress 2020
Virtual meeting
21 September – 9 October 2020
Europlanet Science Congress 2020
Virtual meeting
21 September – 9 October 2020
EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 14, EPSC2020-648, 2020, updated on 30 Apr 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2020-648
Europlanet Science Congress 2020
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Giant planet formation models with a self-consistent treatment of heavy-element.

Claudio Valletta and Ravit Helled
Claudio Valletta and Ravit Helled
  • University of Zurich, Institute of Computational Science, Zurich, Switzerland (claudiovalletta92@gmail.com)

We present a new numerical framework to model the formation and evolution of giant planets. The code is based on the further development of the stellar evolution toolkit Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA). 
The model includes the dissolution of the accreted planetesimals/pebbles in the planetary gaseous envelope, and the effect of envelope enrichment on the planetary growth and internal structure is computed self-consistently. 
We apply our simulations to Jupiter and investigate the impact of different heavy-element and gas accretion rates on its formation history. 
We show that the assumed runaway gas accretion rate significantly affect the planetary radius and luminosity.
It is confirmed that heavy-element enrichment leads to shorter formation timescales due to more efficient gas accretion. 
We find that with heavy-element enrichment Jupiter's formation timescale is compatible with typical disks' lifetimes even when assuming a low heavy-element accretion rate (oligarchic regime). 
Finally, we provide an approximation for the heavy-element profile in the innermost part of the planet, providing a link between the internal structure and the planetary growth history.

How to cite: Valletta, C. and Helled, R.: Giant planet formation models with a self-consistent treatment of heavy-element., Europlanet Science Congress 2020, online, 21 Sep–9 Oct 2020, EPSC2020-648, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2020-648, 2020.