Conclusions

  • Upper limit placed on moon masses in extrasolar planetary systems
  • HD209458b unlikely to have any prograde primordial satellites over 100km in diameter
  • Planets beyond ~.4AU from their central star have no maximum moon mass (yet)
  • Planets in eccentric orbits despin faster, have lower max stable moon mass than planets on e=0 orbits

  • Future Work

  • Account for outward migration toward instability for planets which don't despin in Gyr timescales
  • (maybe it would be nice to eventually) build a full-up orbital integrator taking both gravity and tidal torques into account