Giant Planet Formation, Evolution, and Internal Structure

Understand

The large number of detected giant exoplanets offers the opportunity to improve our understanding of the formation mechanism, evolution, and interior structure of gas giant planets.

• The two main models for giant planet formation are core accretion and disk instability.
• There are substantial differences between these formation models, including formation timescale, favorable formation location, ideal disk properties for planetary formation, early evolution, planetary composition, etc.
• First, we summarize the two models including their substantial differences, advantages, and disadvantages, and suggest how theoretical models should be connected to available (and future) data.