William Herbst, Catrina M. Hamilton, Katherine LeDuc, Joshua N. Winn, Christopher M. Johns-Krull, Reinhard Mundt, Mansur Ibrahimov
We show that grains have grown to ~mm size (sand sized) or larger in the terrestrial zone (within ~3 AU) of the protoplanetary disk surrounding the 3 Myr old binary star KH 15D. We also argue that the reflected light in the system reaches us by back scattering off the far side of the same ring whose near side causes the obscuration.
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Planetary systems, ours included, are formed in disks of dust and gas around young stars. Disks are an integral part of the star and planet formation process, and knowledge of the distribution and temperature of inner disk material is crucial for understanding terrestrial planet formation, giant planet migration, and accretion onto the central star. While the inner regions of protoplanetary disks in nearby star forming regions subtend only a few nano-radians, near-IR interferometry has recently enabled the spatial resolution of these terrestrial zones. Most observations have probed only dust, …
We present detections of numerous 10-20 micron H2O emission lines from two protoplanetary disks around the T Tauri stars AS 205A and DR Tau, obtained using the InfraRed Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Follow-up 3-5 micron Keck-NIRSPEC data confirm the presence of abundant water and spectrally resolve the lines. We also detect the P4.5 (2.934 micron) and P9.5 (3.179 micron) doublets of OH and 12CO/13CO v=1-0 emission in both sources. Line shapes and LTE models suggest that the emission from all three molecules originates between ~0.5 and 5 AU, and so will provide a new window for u…
Formation of terrestrial planets by agglomeration of planetesimals in protoplanetary disks sensitively depends on the velocity evolution of planetesimals. We describe a novel semi-analytical approach to the treatment of planetesimal dynamics incorporating the gravitational scattering by massive protoplanetary bodies. Using this method we confirm that planets grow very slowly in the outer Solar System if gravitational scattering is the only process determining planetesimal velocities, making it hard for giant planets to acquire their massive gaseous envelopes within less than 10 Myr. We put for…
The ``minimum-mass solar nebula'' (MMSN) model estimates the surface density distribution of the protoplanetary disk by assuming the planets to have formed in situ. However, significant radial migration of the giant planets likely occurred in the Solar system, implying a distortion in the values derived by the MMSN method. The true density profiles of protoplanetary disks is therefore uncertain. Here we present results of simulations of late-stage terrestrial accretion, each starting from a disk of planetary embryos. We assume a power-law surface density profile that varies with heliocentric d…
The recent detections of extrasolar giant planets has revealed a surprising diversity of planetary system architectures, with many very unlike our Solar System. Understanding the origin of this diversity requires multi-wavelength studies of the structure and evolution of the protoplanetary disks that surround young stars. Radio astronomy and the Square Kilometer Array will play a unique role in these studies by imaging thermal dust emission in a representative sample of protoplanetary disks at unprecedented sub-AU scales in the innermost regions, including the ``habitable zone'' that lies with…
Size-selective concentration of particles in a weakly turbulent protoplanetary nebula may be responsible for the initial collection of chondrules and other constituents into primitive body precursors. This paper presents the main elements of this process of turbulent concentration. In the terrestrial planet region, both the characteristic size and size distribution of chondrules are explained. "Fluffier" particles would be concentrated in nebula regions which were at a lower gas density and/or more intensely turbulent. The spatial distribution of concentrated particle density obeys multifracta…
Large-scale radial transport of solids appears to be a fundamental consequence of protoplanetary disk evolution based on the presence of high temperature minerals in comets and the outer regions of protoplanetary disks around other stars. Further, inward transport of solids from the outer regions of the solar nebula has been postulated to be the manner in which short-lived radionuclides were introduced to the terrestrial planet region and the cause of the variations in oxygen isotope ratios seen in primitive materials. Here, both outward and inward transport of solids are investigated in the c…
Using a thermal-chemical model for the generic T-Tauri disk of D'Alessio et al. (1999), we estimate the strength of the fine-structure emission lines of NeII and NeIII at 12.81 and 15.55 microns that arise from the warm atmosphere of the disk exposed to hard stellar X-rays. The Ne ions are produced by the absorption of keV X-rays from the K shell of neutral Ne, followed by the Auger ejection of several additional electrons. The recombination cascade of the Ne ions is slow because of weak charge transfer with atomic hydrogen in the case of Ne2+ and by essentially no charge transfer for Ne+. For…
The current picture of terrestrial planet formation relies heavily on our understanding of the dynamical evolution of planetesimals -- asteroid-like bodies thought to be planetary building blocks. In this study we investigate the growth of eccentricities and inclinations of planetesimals in spatially homogeneous protoplanetary disks using methods of kinetic theory. We explore disks with a realistic mass spectrum of planetesimals evolving in time, similar to that obtained in self-consistent simulations of planetesimal coagulation. We calculate the behavior of planetesimal random velocities as a…
The first challenge in the formation of both terrestrial planets and the cores of gas giants is the retention of grains in protoplanetary disks. In most regions of these disks, gas attains sub-Keplerian speeds as a consequence of a negative pressure gradient. Hydrodynamic drag leads to orbital decay and depletion of the solid material in the disk, with characteristic timescales as short as only a few hundred years for meter-sized objects at 1 AU. In this paper, we suggest a particle retention mechanism which promotes the accumulation of grains and the formation of planetesimals near the water …
Gravitational instability of a vertically thin, dusty sheet near the midplane of a protoplanetary disk has long been proposed as a way of forming planetesimals. Before Roche densities can be achieved, however, the dust-rich layer, sandwiched from above and below by more slowly rotating dust-poor gas, threatens to overturn and mix by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). Whether such a threat is real has never been demonstrated: the Richardson criterion for the KHI is derived for 2-D Cartesian shear flow and does not account for rotational forces. Here we present 3-D numerical simulations of …
Context: Our previous models of a giant planet migrating through an inner protoplanet/planetesimal disk find that the giant shepherds a portion of the material it encounters into interior orbits, whilst scattering the rest into external orbits. Scattering tends to dominate, leaving behind abundant material that can accrete into terrestrial planets. Aims: We add to the possible realism of our model by simulating type I migration forces which cause an inward drift, and strong eccentricity and inclination damping of protoplanetary bodies. This extra dissipation might be expected to enhance shephe…
Smaller terrestrial planets (< 0.3 Earth masses) are less likely to retain the substantial atmospheres and ongoing tectonic activity probably required to support life. A key element in determining if sufficiently massive "sustainably habitable" planets can form is the availability of solid planet-forming material. We use dynamical simulations of terrestrial planet formation from planetary embryos and simple scaling arguments to explore the implications of correlations between terrestrial planet mass, disk mass, and the mass of the parent star. We assume that the protoplanetary disk mass scales…
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