Exomoons of Circumbinary Planets

Abstract

Confirmation of the first exomoon remains elusive. Although several exomoon candidates exist around single stars, there are currently no candidates around circumbinary planets (CBPs). Most CBPs are thought to form far from the host binary and migrate through the protoplanetary disk. Therefore, an exomoon of a CBP represents a fascinating yet complex and evolving four-body system. Their existence (or absence) would shed light on the robustness of moon formation and evolution in dynamically active planetary systems. In this work, we simulate the orbital evolutions of exomoons around migrating CBPs. We show that for fully migrated CBPs, a moon is capable of surviving the migration if it is formed within ∼5%–10% of the planet’s Hill radius, well within the currently proposed range at which moons are thought to settle in the planetary disk for giant planets. Of the moons that remained gravitationally bound to their host planet postmigration, 18% lie within the habitable zone, supporting the potential for circumbinary habitability, even if all currently known CBPs are gas giants. Meanwhile, 38% of moons escape their host planet early in the migration and become long-period CBPs (i.e a multiplanet circumbinary system). Nearly one-third of exomoons collide with their host planet, and 1% are ejected from the system entirely. This last class presents another pathway for producing free-floating planetary-mass objects, like those discovered recently and expected from the Roman microlensing survey.