Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A few planetesimals may have been captured as moons, such as Phoebe (a moon of Saturn) and many other small high-inclination moons of the giant planets. Planetesimals that have survived to the current day are valuable to science because they contain information about the formation of the Solar System. Although their exteriors are subjected to ...
[14] [15] The largest planetesimals can grow much faster via pebble accretion, [10] but if the formation or delivery of pebbles is rapid numerous Earth-mass planets form instead of a few giant planet cores. [16] As the largest objects approach Earth-mass the radius from which pebbles are accreted is limited by the Hill radius. [3]
The ices that formed the Jovian planets were more abundant than the metals and silicates that formed the terrestrial planets, allowing the giant planets to grow massive enough to capture hydrogen and helium, the lightest and most abundant elements. [11] Planetesimals beyond the frost line accumulated up to 4 M E within about 3 million years. [38]
The objects formed by accretion are called planetesimals—they act as seeds for planet formation. Initially, planetesimals were closely packed. They coalesced into larger objects, forming clumps up to a few kilometers across in a few million years, a small time in comparison to the age of the Solar System. [3]
A planetesimal is an object formed from dust, rock, and other materials, measuring from meters to hundreds of kilometers in size. According to the Chamberlin–Moulton planetesimal hypothesis and the theories of Viktor Safronov, a protoplanetary disk of materials such as gas and dust would orbit a star early in the formation of a planetary system.
For a single planet system, planetesimals can only be lost (a sink) due to their ejection, which would cause the planet to migrate inward. In multiple planet systems the other planets can act as sinks or sources. Planetesimals can be removed from the planet's influence after encountering an adjacent planet or transferred to that planet's influence.
Giant planets can significantly influence terrestrial planet formation. The presence of giants tends to increase eccentricities and inclinations (see Kozai mechanism) of planetesimals and embryos in the terrestrial planet region (inside 4 AU in the Solar System). [62] [66] If giant planets form too early, they can slow or prevent inner planet ...
Planetesimals constitute the building blocks of both terrestrial and giant planets. [16] [17] A model of a protoplanetary disk. Some of the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus are believed to have formed from smaller, circumplanetary analogs of the protoplanetary disks.