Do Proto‐jovian Planets Drive Outflows?

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Abstract
We discuss the possibility that gaseous giant planets drive strong outflows during early phases of their formation. We consider the range of parameters appropriate for magneto-centrifugally driven stellar and disk outflow models and find that, if the proto-Jovian planet or accretion disk had a magnetic field of 10 G and moderate mass-inflow accretion rates through the disk of less than ~10-7MJ yr-1, it is possible to drive an outflow. Estimates based both on scaling from empirical laws observed in protostellar outflows and the magneto-centrifugal disk and stellar plus disk wind models suggest that winds with mass-outflow rates of order 10-8MJ yr-1 and velocities of order ~20 km s-1 could be driven from proto-Jovian planets. Prospects for detection and some implications for the formation of the solar system are briefly discussed.