Giant planet formation in the framework of the core instability model

In this Thesis I studied the formation of the four giant planets of the Solar System in the framework of the nucleated instability hypothesis. The model considers that solids and gas accretion are coupled in an interactive fashion, taking into account detailed constitutive physics for the envelope. The accretion rate of the core corresponds to the oligarchic growth regime. I also considered that accreted planetesimals follow a size distribution. One of the main results of this Thesis is that I was able to compute the formation of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in less than 10 million years, which is considered to be the protoplanetary disk mean lifetime.

Forming Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in Few Million Years by Core Accretion

Giant planet formation process is still not completely understood. The current most accepted paradigm, the core instability model, explains several observed properties of the solar systems giant planets but, to date, has faced difficulties to account for a formation time shorter than the observational estimates of protoplanetary disks lifetimes, especially for the cases of Uranus and Neptune. In the context of this model, and considering a recently proposed primordial solar system orbital structure, we performed numerical calculations of giant planet formation. Our results show that if accreted planetesimals follow a size distribution in which most of the mass lies in 30-100 meter sized bodies, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune may have formed according to the nucleated instability scenario. The formation of each planet occurs within the time constraints and they end up with core masses in good agreement with present estimations.