Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie
STEPHEN PHILLIPS hostreviews.co.uk / UNSPLASH

From Pebbles to Planets

Katherine Kretke , SWRI

In recent years, theories surrounding the formation of small-bodies and planets have been undergoing a radical shift. It has become apparent that particles with stopping times comparable to their orbital times, often called "pebbles" (although they may range from millimeter up to meter sizes), interact with gaseous protoplanetary disks in very special ways. Gas drag can first concentrate the pebbles, allowing them to gravitationally collapse and directly produce the planetesimal building blocks, and then drag will cause them to be efficiently accreted on to these planetesimals, rapidly producing larger planetary embryos. In this talk I discuss how this pebble accretion may provide a solution to long standing questions in planet formation and explain the observed structure of our Solar System: by forming a system of giant planets, ice giants, and terrestrial planets; even providing an explanation for the low masses of Mars and of the Asteroid Belt.

PSF Coffee
29 Jun 2016, 14:00
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Level 3, Seminar Room (306)

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