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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0The Astrophysical Journal

A Formation-stage Bottleneck for Exomoons around Close-in Rocky Planets

  • Rongxi Bi1
  • Hongping Deng2
  • Christian Reinhardt3,4
  • Shangfei Liu5
  • Yun Liu1,2
5 affiliations
  1. 1Chengdu University of Technology
  2. 2Chinese Academy of Sciences
  3. 3University of Zurich
  4. 4University of Bern
  5. 5Sun Yat-sen University
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Abstract

Massive moons around rocky exoplanets are expected outcomes of giant impacts, yet no exomoon has been securely confirmed. We address this problem using meshless finite-mass (MFM) simulations of giant impacts between differentiated rocky planets that include stellar tidal and Coriolis forces in a local corotating frame for orbital periods of 1–300 days, and compare these simulations with otherwise identical collisions in isolation. We find that stellar perturbations impose a severe formation-stage bottleneck on moon-forming disks. Ultra-short-period impacts leave essentially no surviving circumplanetary disk (CPD), whereas 10 day systems retain only strongly depleted, radially truncated, and dynamically compact disks. High impact velocities, expected for close-in planets, are devastating for disk generation, while retrograde impacts can slightly compensate for disk mass depletion. These results show that stellar perturbations can suppress exomoon formation around close-in rocky planets, reshaping expectations for the demographics of exomoons.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{bi2026formationstage,
  title = {{A Formation-stage Bottleneck for Exomoons around Close-in Rocky Planets}},
  author = {Rongxi Bi and Hongping Deng and Christian Reinhardt and Shangfei Liu and Yun Liu},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aea8fc},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea8fc},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - A Formation-stage Bottleneck for Exomoons around Close-in Rocky Planets
AU  - Rongxi Bi
AU  - Hongping Deng
AU  - Christian Reinhardt
AU  - Shangfei Liu
AU  - Yun Liu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/28
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal
DO  - 10.3847/1538-4357/aea8fc
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea8fc
AB  - Massive moons around rocky exoplanets are expected outcomes of giant impacts, yet no exomoon has been securely confirmed. We address this problem using meshless finite-mass (MFM) simulations of giant impacts between differentiated rocky planets that include stellar tidal and Coriolis forces in a local corotating frame for orbital periods of 1–300 days, and compare these simulations with otherwise identical collisions in isolation. We find that stellar perturbations impose a severe formation-stage bottleneck on moon-forming disks. Ultra-short-period impacts leave essentially no surviving circumplanetary disk (CPD), whereas 10 day systems retain only strongly depleted, radially truncated, and dynamically compact disks. High impact velocities, expected for close-in planets, are devastating for disk generation, while retrograde impacts can slightly compensate for disk mass depletion. These results show that stellar perturbations can suppress exomoon formation around close-in rocky planets, reshaping expectations for the demographics of exomoons.
SN  - 1538-4357
SN  - 0004-637X
ER  -