New Jupiter and Saturn Formation Models Meet Observations

Abstract

The wealth of observational data about Jupiter and Saturn provides strong constraints to guide our understanding of the formation of giant planets. The size of the core and the total amount of heavy elements in the envelope have been derived from internal structure studies by Saumon & Guillot. The atmospheric abundance of some volatile elements has been measured in situ by the Galileo probe or by remote sensing. In this Letter, we show that, by extending the standard core accretion formation scenario of giant planets by Pollack et al. to include migration and protoplanetary disk evolution, it is possible to account for all of these constraints in a self-consistent manner. © 2005. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.