Title:

Capture of Irregular Satellites by 3-Body Interactions



David Vokrouhlicky
Charles University, Prague



Abstract:

The origin of the irregular satellites of the giant planets is an
important problem in planetary science. In this talk I describe two
variants of 3-body interactions as a putative mechanism of satellite
capture: (i) planetesimal transfer onto a bound orbit during planetary
close encouters, and (ii) dissociation of binary systems of
planetesimals during their approaches to planets. The context of this
work is the Nice model. I show that variant (i) is an efficient
capture process capable of explaining the overall population of
irregular satellites (except perhaps those of Jupiter). Conversely,
variant (ii) lacks the needed efficiency except in special cases like,
for example, the capture of Triton very early after Neptune's
formation.