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Old 05-May-2006, 01:14 PM
grant hutchison grant hutchison is online now
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Originally Posted by grant hutchison
Tony, I wonder if the fact that Uranus and Neptune were orbiting within a debris disk is relevant here: that has a powerful circularizing effect on orbits, as the planets exchange energy with the disk as well as with each other.
Yep, here we go. The caption to the first graph in Brunini's letter to Nature includes the following detail of the simulation parameters: "The orbits were circularized as though dynamical friction by the planetesimal disk were operating while the planets were immersed in the planetesimal disk ..."

Grant Hutchison
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