Topic: Saturn

This seminar explores a version of the Nice model whose starting planetary configuration is produced by migration through a low-viscosity gas disk. Jupiter and Saturn enter a two-to-one resonance with larger eccentricities than in alternative scenarios. The presentation weighs the strengths and limitations of these initial conditions.

The Kuiper belt preserves evidence of major orbital changes among the giant planets. This lecture reviews migration-driven explanations for its resonant, dynamically excited and detached populations. It then examines why these early models required an additional instability mechanism, leading to scenarios involving resonance crossing between Jupiter and Saturn.