scholarly journals The aeolian-erosion barrier for the growth of metre-size objects in protoplanetary discs

2020 ◽  
Vol 496 (4) ◽  
pp. 4827-4835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mor Rozner ◽  
Evgeni Grishin ◽  
Hagai B Perets

ABSTRACT Aeolian erosion is a destructive process that can erode small-size planetary objects through their interaction with a gaseous environment. Aeolian erosion operates in a wide range of environments and under various conditions. Aeolian erosion has been extensively explored in the context of geophysics in terrestrial planets. Here we show that aeolian erosion of cobbles, boulders, and small planetesimals in protoplanetary discs can constitute a significant barrier for the early stages of planet formation. We use analytic calculations to show that under the conditions prevailing in protoplanetary discs small bodies ($10\!-\!10^4 \, \rm {m}$) are highly susceptible to gas-drag aeolian erosion. At this size-range aeolian erosion can efficiently erode the planetesimals down to tens-cm size and quench any further growth of such small bodies. It thereby raises potential difficulties for channels suggested to alleviate the metre-size barrier. Nevertheless, the population of ∼decimetre-size cobbles resulting from aeolian erosion might boost the growth of larger (>km size) planetesimals and planetary embryos through increasing the efficiency of pebble-accretion, once/if such large planetesimals and planetary embryos exist in the disc.

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (S345) ◽  
pp. 351-352
Author(s):  
Ernst A. Dorfi ◽  
Florian Ragossnig

AbstractDuring the early stages of planet formation accretion of small bodies add mass to the planet and deposit their energy kinetic energy. Caused by frictional heating and/or large stagnation pressures within the dense and extended atmospheres most of the in-falling bodies get destroyed by melting or break-up before they impact on the planet’s surface. The energy is added to the atmospheric layers rather than heating the planet directly. These processes can significantly alter the physical properties of protoplanets before they are exposed with their primordial atmospheres to the early stellar source when the protoplanetary disk becomes evaporated.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29B) ◽  
pp. 427-430
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Walsh

AbstractBuilding models capable of successfully matching the Terrestrial Planet's basic orbital and physical properties has proven difficult. Meanwhile, improved estimates of the nature of water-rich material accreted by the Earth, along with the timing of its delivery, have added even more constraints for models to match. While the outer Asteroid Belt seemingly provides a source for water-rich planetesimals, models that delivered enough of them to the still-forming Terrestrial Planets typically failed on other basic constraints - such as the mass of Mars.Recent models of Terrestrial Planet Formation have explored how the gas-driven migration of the Giant Planets can solve long-standing issues with the Earth/Mars size ratio. This model is forced to reproduce the orbital and taxonomic distribution of bodies in the Asteroid Belt from a much wider range of semimajor axis than previously considered. In doing so, it also provides a mechanism to feed planetesimals from between and beyond the Giant Planet formation region to the still-forming Terrestrial Planets.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S249) ◽  
pp. 233-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean N. Raymond

AbstractTerrestrial planets form in a series of dynamical steps from the solid component of circumstellar disks. First, km-sized planetesimals form likely via a combination of sticky collisions, turbulent concentration of solids, and gravitational collapse from micron-sized dust grains in the thin disk midplane. Second, planetesimals coalesce to form Moon- to Mars-sized protoplanets, also called “planetary embryos”. Finally, full-sized terrestrial planets accrete from protoplanets and planetesimals. This final stage of accretion lasts about 10-100 Myr and is strongly affected by gravitational perturbations from any gas giant planets, which are constrained to form more quickly, during the 1-10 Myr lifetime of the gaseous component of the disk. It is during this final stage that the bulk compositions and volatile (e.g., water) contents of terrestrial planets are set, depending on their feeding zones and the amount of radial mixing that occurs. The main factors that influence terrestrial planet formation are the mass and surface density profile of the disk, and the perturbations from giant planets and binary companions if they exist. Simple accretion models predicts that low-mass stars should form small, dry planets in their habitable zones. The migration of a giant planet through a disk of rocky bodies does not completely impede terrestrial planet growth. Rather, “hot Jupiter” systems are likely to also contain exterior, very water-rich Earth-like planets, and also “hot Earths”, very close-in rocky planets. Roughly one third of the known systems of extra-solar (giant) planets could allow a terrestrial planet to form in the habitable zone.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Owen

<p>Snow-lines are thought to play a vital role in the evolution of protoplanetary discs and planet formation at all scales. Snow-lines occur in regions of the protoplanetary discs where the temperature reaches the sublimation temperature and volatiles transition from the solid phase to the vapour phase (or vice-versa). However, in the outer region of protoplanetary discs (beyond a few AU), the temperature is set by the distribution of solids and their ability to absorb stellar light. Thus, the thermodynamics of the disc and the volatile phases are inextricably linked. In this talk, I will show this coupling is thermally unstable, and snow-lines continually evolve in regions of the disc that are marginally optically thick. Patches of the disc proceeding through a limit cycle, where volatiles in a region of the disc continually condense and then sublimate. Using numerical simulations of the CO snow-line I will show it can move 10s AU over 10,000 years, repeatedly. I will use these simulations to discuss how this new process may effect measured Carbon abundances, solid evolution and ultimately planet formation, making connections to high-resolution images of protoplanetary discs. </p>


1985 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 191 ◽  
Author(s):  
DJ Russell ◽  
RN Garrett

Larval barramundi in the size range 2.8-5.2 mm were collected from plankton in two estuaries in north-eastern Queensland from 31 October 1979 until 13 February 1980. After leaving the plankton, barramundi moved into nearby brackish and freshwater swamps. These areas acted as nursery grounds, offering both protection from predators, and abundant prey in the form of insect larvae, other fish and crustaceans. These habitats exhibit a wide range of salinities (fresh water-44 × 103 mg l-1) and surface water temperatures (23-36�C). Juvenile barramundi commenced migration from these swamps into permanent tidal creeks around April where they remained for up to 9 months before dispersal into the estuary, up rivers or along coastal foreshores. The diet of the barramundi in these tidal creeks was exclusively fish and crustaceans. Juvenile barramundi were resident in tidal creeks that had been subjected to substantial human interference through habitat alteration. Destruction of nursery swamps may pose a serious threat to local barramundi stocks near centres of human population on the eastern Queensland coast.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (14) ◽  
pp. 4214-4217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin Batygin ◽  
Greg Laughlin

The statistics of extrasolar planetary systems indicate that the default mode of planet formation generates planets with orbital periods shorter than 100 days and masses substantially exceeding that of the Earth. When viewed in this context, the Solar System is unusual. Here, we present simulations which show that a popular formation scenario for Jupiter and Saturn, in which Jupiter migrates inward from a > 5 astronomical units (AU) to a ≈ 1.5 AU before reversing direction, can explain the low overall mass of the Solar System’s terrestrial planets, as well as the absence of planets with a < 0.4 AU. Jupiter’s inward migration entrained s ≳ 10−100 km planetesimals into low-order mean motion resonances, shepherding and exciting their orbits. The resulting collisional cascade generated a planetesimal disk that, evolving under gas drag, would have driven any preexisting short-period planets into the Sun. In this scenario, the Solar System’s terrestrial planets formed from gas-starved mass-depleted debris that remained after the primary period of dynamical evolution.


Author(s):  
S. A. Jacobson ◽  
A. Morbidelli

We present conclusions from a large number of N -body simulations of the giant impact phase of terrestrial planet formation. We focus on new results obtained from the recently proposed Grand Tack model, which couples the gas-driven migration of giant planets to the accretion of the terrestrial planets. The giant impact phase follows the oligarchic growth phase, which builds a bi-modal mass distribution within the disc of embryos and planetesimals. By varying the ratio of the total mass in the embryo population to the total mass in the planetesimal population and the mass of the individual embryos, we explore how different disc conditions control the final planets. The total mass ratio of embryos to planetesimals controls the timing of the last giant (Moon-forming) impact and its violence. The initial embryo mass sets the size of the lunar impactor and the growth rate of Mars. After comparing our simulated outcomes with the actual orbits of the terrestrial planets (angular momentum deficit, mass concentration) and taking into account independent geochemical constraints on the mass accreted by the Earth after the Moon-forming event and on the time scale for the growth of Mars, we conclude that the protoplanetary disc at the beginning of the giant impact phase must have had most of its mass in Mars-sized embryos and only a small fraction of the total disc mass in the planetesimal population. From this, we infer that the Moon-forming event occurred between approximately 60 and approximately 130 Myr after the formation of the first solids and was caused most likely by an object with a mass similar to that of Mars.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S276) ◽  
pp. 434-435
Author(s):  
David Kirsh ◽  
Ralph Pudritz

AbstractPlanetesimal formation occurs early in the evolution of a solar system, embedded in the circumstellar gas disk, and it is the crucial first step in planet formation. Their growth is difficult beyond boulder size, and likely proceeds via the accumulation of many rocks in turbulence followed by gravitational collapse - a process we are only beginning to understand. We have performed global simulations of the gas disk with embedded particles in the FLASH code. Particles and gas feel drag based on differential velocities and densities. Grains and boulders of various sizes have been investigated, from micron to km, with the goal of understanding where in the disk large planetesimals will tend to form, what sizes will result, and what size ranges of grains will be preferentially incorporated. We have so far simulated particles vertical settling and radial drift under the influence of gas drag, and their accumulations in turbulent clumps.


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