The formation of planetesimals in protoplanetary disks is not well-understood. Streaming instability is a promising mechanism to directly form planetesimals from pebble-sized particles, provided a high enough solids-to-gas ratio. However, local enhancements of the solids-to-gas ratio are difficult to realize in a smooth disk, which motivates the consideration of special disk locations such as the snowline. In this article we investigate the viability of planetesimal formation by streaming instability near the snowline due to water diffusion and condensation. We adopt a viscous disk model, and numerically solve the transport equations for vapor and solids on a cylindrical, 1D grid. We take into account radial drift of solids, gas accretion on to the central star, and turbulent diffusion. We study the importance of the back-reaction of solids on the gas and of the radial variation of the mean molecular weight of the gas. We find that water diffusion and condensation can locally enhance the ice surface density by a factor 3--5 outside the snowline. Assuming that icy pebbles contain many micron-sized silicate grains that are released during evaporation, the enhancement is increased by another factor $\sim$$2$. In this `many-seeds' model, the solids-to-gas ratio interior to the snowline is enhanced as well, but not as much as just outside the snowline. In the context of a viscous disk, the diffusion-condensation mechanism is most effective for high values of the turbulence parameter $α$ ($10^{-3}$--$10^{-2}$). Therefore, assuming young disks are more vigorously turbulent than older disks, planetesimals near the snowline can form in an early stage of the disk. In highly turbulent disks, tens of Earth masses can be stored in an annulus outside the snowline, which can be identified with recent ALMA observations.
Recently Saito & Sirono (2011) proposed that large ice aggregates which drift in- wards in protoplanetary disks break up during sublimation, ejecting embedded silicate particles. This would lead to a concentration of small solid particles close to the snow- line. In view of this model we carried out laboratory experiments where we observed freely levitating ice aggregates sublimating. We find that frequent break up is indeed very common. Scaled to a 10 cm aggregate about 2x10^4 small silicate aggregates might result. This supports the idea that sublimation of drifting ice aggregates might loca…
Highly porous dust aggregates can break through the radial drift barrier, but previous studies assumed disks in their later stage, where the disks have a very small mass and low temperature. In contrast, dust coagulation should begin in the very early stage such as the disk formation stage because the growth timescale of dust is shorter than the disk formation timescale if there is no process to suppress the collisional growth of dust. We investigate the possibility of planetesimal formation via direct collisional growth in the very early stage of a protoplanetary disk. We show that, in the ve…
We introduce a new Lagrangian smooth-particle method to model the growth and drift of pebbles in protoplanetary disks. The Lagrangian nature of the model makes it especially suited to follow characteristics of individual (groups of) particles, such as their composition. In this work we focus on the water content of solid particles. Planetesimal formation via streaming instability is taken into account, partly based on previous results on streaming instability outside the water snowline that were presented in Schoonenberg & Ormel (2017). We validate our model by reproducing earlier results from…
The formation of planetesimals is expected to occur via particle-gas instabilities that concentrate dust into self-gravitating clumps. Triggering these instabilities requires the prior pileup of dust in the protoplanetary disk. Until now, this has been successfully modeled exclusively at the disk's snowline, whereas rocky planetesimals in the inner disk were obtained only by assuming either unrealistically large particle sizes or an enhanced global disk metallicity. However, planetesimal formation solely at the snowline is difficult to reconcile with the early and contemporaneous formation of …
The water snowline in protoplanetary disks is one of the most pivotal locations for planet formation: it sets a critical boundary of chemical composition in the disk and likely serves as a favorable site of planetesimal growth and planet formation. However, the water snowline at the mid-plane cannot be directly traced by water line observations as the dust emission around the water snowline is highly optically thick at these line frequencies. Alternatively, the water snowline maybe traced through the sharp changes in physical properties (surface density and dust size distribution) at this tran…
Recently it is proposed that porous icy dust aggregates are formed by pairwise accretion of dust aggregates beyond the snowline. We calculate the equilibrium random velocity of porous dust aggregates taking into account mutual gravitational scattering, collisions, gas drag, and turbulent stirring and scattering. We find that the disk of porous dust aggregates becomes gravitationally unstable as they evolve through gravitational compression in the minimum-mass solar nebula model for a reasonable range of turbulence strength, which leads to rapid formation of planetesimals.
Astronomical observations reveal that protoplanetary disks around young stars commonly have ring- and gap-like structures in their dust distributions. These features are associated with pressure bumps trapping dust particles at specific locations, which simulations show are ideal sites for planetesimal formation. Here we show that our Solar System may have formed from rings of planetesimals -- created by pressure bumps -- rather than a continuous disk. We model the gaseous disk phase assuming the existence of pressure bumps near the silicate sublimation line (at $T \sim$1400~K), water snowline…
Jupiter's atmosphere is enriched in C, N, S, P, Ar, Kr and Xe with respect to solar abundances by a factor of ~3. Gas Giant envelopes are mainly enriched through the dissolution of solids in the atmosphere, and this constant enrichment factor is puzzling since several of the above elements are not expected to have been in the solid phase in Jupiter's feeding zone; most seriously, Ar and the main carrier of N, N2, only condense at the very low temperatures, 21-26 K, associated with the outer solar nebula. We propose that a plausible solution to the enigma of Jupiter's uniform enrichment pattern…
The terrestrial planets and the asteroids dominant in the inner asteroid belt are water poor. However, in the protoplanetary disk the temperature should have decreased below water condensation level well before the disk was photoevaporated. Thus, the global water depletion of the inner Solar System is puzling. We show that, even if the inner disk becomes cold, there cannot be direct condensation of water. This is because the snowline moves towards the Sun more slowly than the gas itself. The appearance of ice in a range of heliocentric distances swept by the snowline can only be due to the rad…
Simulating the interplay between the snowline pebble flux and ongoing planet formation and migration
University of Exeter（埃克塞特大学）；Space Telescope Science Institute（太空望远镜科学研究所）；Max Planck Institute for Astronomy（马克斯·普朗克天文学研究所）；University College Cork（科克大学学院）
We present a study of four different formation scenarios that may be able to explain the origin of the recently announced planet (`Proxima b') orbiting Proxima Centauri. The aim is to examine how the formation scenarios differ in their predictions for the multiplicity of the Proxima system, the water/volatile content of Proxima b and its orbital eccentricity, so that these can be tested by future observations. A scenario of in situ formation via giant impacts from a locally enhanced disc of planetary embryos/planetesimals predicts that Proxima b will be in a multiplanet system with a measurabl…
We present collision experiments of centimetre projectiles on to decimetre targets, both made up of solid ice, at velocities of $15\,\mathrm{m\,s^{-1}}$ to $45\,\mathrm{m\,s^{-1}}$ at an average temperature of $\mathrm{T_{avg}}=255.8\pm0.7\,\mathrm{K}$. In these collisions the centimetre body gets disrupted and part of it sticks to the target. This behaviour can be observed up to an upper threshold, that depends on the projectile size, beyond which there is no mass transfer. In collisions of small particles, as produced by the disruption of the centimetre projectiles, we also find mass transfe…
Water condensed as ice beyond the water snowline, the location in the Sun's natal gaseous disk where temperatures were below 170 K. As the disk evolved and cooled, the snowline moved inwards. A low temperature in the terrestrial planet-forming region is unlikely to be the origin of water on the planets, and the distinct isotopic compositions of planetary objects formed in the inner and outer disks suggest limited early mixing of inner and outer Solar System materials. Water in our terrestrial planets has rather been derived from H-bearing materials indigenous to the inner disk and delivered by…
The basic structure of the solar system is set by the presence of low-mass terrestrial planets in its inner part and giant planets in its outer part. This is the result of the formation of a system of multiple embryos with approximately the mass of Mars in the inner disk and of a few multi-Earth-mass cores in the outer disk, within the lifetime of the gaseous component of the protoplanetary disk. What was the origin of this dichotomy in the mass distribution of embryos/cores? We show in this paper that the classic processes of runaway and oligarchic growth from a disk of planetesimals cannot e…
Inside the H$_{2}$O snowline of protoplanetary disks, water evaporates from the dust-grain surface into the gas phase, whereas it is frozen out on to the dust in the cold region beyond the snowline. H$_{2}$O ice enhances the solid material in the cold outer part of a disk, which promotes the formation of gas-giant planet cores. We can regard the H$_{2}$O snowline as the surface that divides the regions between rocky and gaseous giant planet formation. Thus observationally measuring the location of the H$_{2}$O snowline is crucial for understanding the planetesimal and planet formation processe…
Forming gas giant planets by the accretion of 100 km diameter planetesimals, a typical size that results from self-gravity assisted planetesimal formation, is often thought to be inefficient. Many models therefore use small km-sized planetesimals, or invoke the accretion of pebbles. Furthermore, models based on planetesimal accretion often use the ad hoc assumption of planetesimals distributed radially in a minimum mass solar nebula fashion. We wish to investigate the impact of various initial radial density distributions in planetesimals with a dynamical model for the formation of planetesima…
Argon, krypton, xenon, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus have all been measured enriched by a quasi uniform factor in the 2--4 range, compared to their protosolar values, in the atmosphere of Jupiter. To elucidate the origin of these volatile enrichments, we investigate the possibility of inward drift of particles made of amorphous ice and adsorbed volatiles, and their ability to enrich in heavy elements the gas phase of the protosolar nebula once they cross the amorphous-to-crystalline ice transition zone, following the original idea formulated by Monga & Desch (2015). To do so, we use…
Observationally measuring the location of the H$_{2}$O snowline is crucial for understanding the planetesimal and planet formation processes, and the origin of water on Earth. In disks around Herbig Ae stars ($T_{\mathrm{*}}\sim$ 10,000K, $M_{\mathrm{*}}\gtrsim$ 2.5$M_{\bigodot}$), the position of the H$_{2}$O snowline is further from the central star compared with that around cooler, and less massive T Tauri stars. Thus, the H$_{2}$O emission line fluxes from the region within the H$_{2}$O snowline are expected to be stronger. In this paper, we calculate the chemical composition of a Herbig A…
One of the main evolutionary stages of planet formation is the dynamical evolution of planetesimal disks. These disks are thought to evolve through gravitational encounters and physical collisions between single planetesimals. In recent years, many binary planetesimals have been observed in the Solar system, indicating that the binarity of planetesimals is high. However, current studies of planetesimal disks formation and evolution do not account for the role of binaries. Here we point out that gravitational encounters of binary planetesimals can have an important role in the evolution of plan…
The growth time scales of planetary embryos and their formation process are imperative for our understanding on how planetary systems form and develop. They determine the subsequent growth mechanisms during the life stages of a circumstellar disk. We quantify the timescales and spatial distribution of planetary embryos via collisional growth and fragmentation of dynamically forming 100km sized planetesimals. In our study, the formation timescales of viscous disk evolution and planetesimal formation are linked to the formation of planetary embryos in the terrestrial planet zone. We connect a on…
In the standard scenario of planet formation, terrestrial planets and the cores of the giant planets are formed by accretion of planetesimals. As planetary embryos grow the planetesimal velocity dispersion increases due to gravitational excitations produced by embryos. The increase of planetesimal relative velocities causes the fragmentation of them due to mutual collisions. We study the role of planetesimal fragmentation on giant planet formation. We analyze how planetesimal fragmentation modifies the growth of giant planet's cores for a wide range of planetesimal sizes and disk masses. We in…
Most of planet formation models that incorporate planetesimal fragmentation consider a catastrophic impact energy threshold for basalts at a constant velocity of 3 km/s during all the process of the formation of the planets. However, as planets grow the relative velocities of the surrounding planetesimals increase from velocities of the order of m/s to a few km/s. In addition, beyond the ice line where giant planets are formed, planetesimals are expected to be composed roughly by 50 percentage of ices. We aim to study the role of planetesimal fragmentation on giant planet formation considering…
The elemental compositions of planets define their chemistry, and could potentially be used as beacons for their formation location if the elemental gas and grain ratios of planet birth environments, i.e. protoplanetary disks, are well understood. In disks, the ratios of volatile elements, such as C/O and N/O, are regulated by the abundance of the main C, N, O carriers, their ice binding environment, and the presence of snowlines of major volatiles at different distances from the central star. We explore the effects of disk dynamical processes, molecular compositions and abundances, and ice co…
We propose an expression for a local planetesimal formation rate proportional to the instantaneous radial pebble flux. The result --- a radial planetesimal distribution --- can be used as initial condition to study the formation of planetary embryos. We follow the idea that one needs particle traps to locally enhance the dust-to-gas ratio sufficiently such that particle gas interactions can no longer prevent planetesimal formation on small scales. The location of these traps can emerge everywhere in the disk. Their occurrence and lifetime is subject of ongoing research, thus they are implement…
Temperature changes in the planet forming disc midplanes carry important physico-chemical consequences, such as the effect on the locations of the condensation fronts of molecules - the snowlines. Snowlines impose major chemical gradients and possibly foster grain growth. The aim of this paper is to understand how disc midplane temperature changes with gas and dust evolution, and identify trends that may influence planet formation or allow to constrain disc evolution observationally. We calculate disc temperature, hydrostatic equilibrium and dust settling in a mutually consistent way from a gr…
We use a population synthesis model that includes pebbles and gas accretion, planetary migration, and a simplified chemistry scheme to study the formation of hot-Jupiters. Models have been proposed that these planets can either originate beyond the snowline and then move inward via disk migration, or form "in-situ" inside the snowline. The goal of this work is to verify which of these two scenarios is more compatible with pebble accretion, and whether we can distinguish observationally between them via the resulting planetary C/O ratios and core masses. Our results show that, for solar system …
Planetesimal formation stage represents a major gap in our understanding of the planet formation process. The late-stage planet accretion models typically make arbitrary assumptions about planetesimals and pebbles distribution while the dust evolution models predict that planetesimal formation is only possible at some orbital distances. We want to test the importance of water snow line for triggering formation of the first planetesimals during the gas-rich phase of protoplanetary disk, when cores of giant planets have to form. We connect prescriptions for gas disk evolution, dust growth and fr…
We study how the interaction between the streaming instability and intrinsic gas-phase turbulence affects planetesimal formation via gravitational collapse in protoplanetary disks. Turbulence impedes the formation of particle clumps by acting as an effective turbulent diffusivity, but it can also promote planetesimal formation by concentrating solids, for example in zonal flows. We quantify the effect of turbulent diffusivity using numerical simulations of the streaming instability in small local domains, forced with velocity perturbations that establish approximately Kolmogorov-like turbulenc…
The trans-Neptunian object 2014 MU69, named Arrokoth, is the most recent evidence that planetesimals did not form by successive collisions of smaller objects, but by the direct gravitational collapse of a pebble cloud. But what process sets the physical scales on which this collapse may occur? Star formation has the Jeans mass, that is when gravity is stronger than thermal pressure, helping us to understand the mass of our sun. But what controls mass and size in the case of planetesimal formation? Both asteroids and Kuiper belt objects show a kink in their size distribution at 100 km. Here we …
In the standard model of core accretion, the cores of the giant planets form by the accretion of planetesimals. In this scenario, the evolution of the planetesimal population plays an important role in the formation of massive cores. Recently, we studied the role of planetesimal fragmentation in the in situ formation of a giant planet. However, the exchange of angular momentum between the planet and the gaseous disk causes the migration of the planet in the disk. In this new work, we incorporate the migration of the planet and globally study the role of planet migration in the formation of a m…
To avoid known difficulties in planetesimal formation such as the drift or fragmentation barriers, many scenarios have been proposed. However, in these scenarios, planetesimals form in general only at some specific locations in protoplanetary discs. On the other hand, it is generally assumed in planet formation models and population synthesis models, that planetesimals are broadly distributed in the protoplanetary disc. Here we propose a new scenario in which planetesimals can form in broad areas of the discs. Planetesimals form at the gas pressure bump formed by a first-generation planet (e.g…
Current models of (exo)planet formation often rely on a large influx of so-called `pebbles' from the outer disk into the planet formation region. In this paper, we investigate how the formation of pebbles in the cold outer regions of protoplanetary disks and their subsequent migration to the inner disk can alter the gas-phase CO distribution both interior and exterior to the midplane CO snowline. By simulating the resulting CO abundances in the midplane as well as the warm surface layer, we identify observable signatures of large-scale pebble formation and migration that can be used as `smokin…
We present a model in which planetesimal disks are built from the combination of planetesimal formation and accretion of radially drifting pebbles onto existing planetesimals. In this model, the rate of accretion of pebbles onto planetesimals quickly outpaces the rate of direct planetesimal formation in the inner disk. This allows for the formation of a high mass inner disk without the need for enhanced planetesimal formation or a massive protoplanetary disk. Our proposed mechanism for planetesimal disk growth does not require any special conditions to operate. Consequently, we expect that hig…
We develop a simple model to predict the radial distribution of planetesimal formation. The model is based on the observed growth of dust to mm-sized particles, which drift radially, pile-up, and form planetesimals where the stopping time and dust-to-gas ratio intersect the allowed region for streaming instability-induced gravitational collapse. Using an approximate analytic treatment, we first show that drifting particles define a track in metallicity--stopping time space whose only substantial dependence is on the disk's angular momentum transport efficiency. Prompt planetesimal formation is…
Several pieces of evidence suggest that silicate grains in primitive meteorites are not interstellar grains but condensates formed in the early solar system. Moreover, the size distribution of matrix grains in chondrites implies that these condensates might be formed as nanometer-sized grains. Therefore, we propose a novel scenario for rocky planetesimal formation in which nanometer-sized silicate grains are produced by evaporation and recondensation events in early solar nebula, and rocky planetesimals are formed via aggregation of these nanograins. We reveal that silicate nanograins can grow…
Accumulation of dust and ice particles into planetesimals is an important step in the planet formation process. Planetesimals are the seeds of both terrestrial planets and the solid cores of gas and ice giants forming by core accretion. Left-over planetesimals in the form of asteroids, trans-Neptunian objects and comets provide a unique record of the physical conditions in the solar nebula. Debris from planetesimal collisions around other stars signposts that the planetesimal formation process, and hence planet formation, is ubiquitous in the Galaxy. The planetesimal formation stage extends fr…
The existence of planets born in environments highly perturbed by a stellar companion represents a major challenge to the paradigm of planet formation. In numerical simulations, the presence of a close binary companion stirs up the relative velocity between planetesimals, which is fundamental in determining the balance between accretion and erosion. However, the recent discovery of circumbinary planets by Kepler establishes that planet formation in binary systems is clearly viable. We perform N-body simulations of planetesimals embedded in a protoplanetary disk, where planetesimal phasing is f…
Recent years have seen growing interest in the streaming instability as a candidate mechanism to produce planetesimals. However, these investigations have been limited to small-scale simulations. We now present the results of a global protoplanetary disk evolution model that incorporates planetesimal formation by the streaming instability, along with viscous accretion, photoevaporation by EUV, FUV, and X-ray photons, dust evolution, the water ice line, and stratified turbulence. Our simulations produce massive (60-130 $M_\oplus$) planetesimal belts beyond 100 au and up to $\sim 20 M_\oplus$ of…
The formation of planetesimals is an unsolved problem in planet formation theory. A prominent scenario for overcoming dust growth barriers in dead zones is the gravitational collapse of locally over-dense regions, shown to robustly produce $\sim$100 km sized objects. Still, the conditions under which planetesimal formation occurs remain unclear. For collapse to proceed, the self-gravity of an overdensity must overcome stellar tidal disruption on large scales and turbulent diffusion on small scales. Here, we relate the scales of streaming and Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, which both regulate pa…
The gravitational instability of a dust layer is one of the scenarios for planetesimal formation. If the density of a dust layer becomes sufficiently high as a result of the sedimentation of dust grains toward the midplane of a protoplanetary disk, the layer becomes gravitationally unstable and spontaneously fragments into planetesimals. Using a shearing box method, we performed local $N$-body simulations of gravitational instability of a dust layer and subsequent coagulation without gas and investigated the basic formation process of planetesimals. In this paper, we adopted the accretion mode…
Planet formation models begin with proto-embryos and planetesimals already fully formed, missing out a crucial step, the formation of planetesimals/proto-embryos. In this work, we include prescriptions for planetesimal and proto-embryo formation arising from pebbles becoming trapped in short-lived pressure bumps, in thermally evolving viscous discs to examine the sizes and distributions of proto-embryos and planetesimals throughout the disc. We find that planetesimal sizes increase with orbital distance, from ~10 km close to the star to hundreds of kilometres further away. Proto-embryo masses …
The consistency of planet formation models suffers from the disconnection between the regime of small and large bodies. This is primarily caused by so-called growth barriers: the direct growth of larger bodies is halted at centimetre-sized objects and particular conditions are required for the formation of larger, gravitationally bound planetesimals. We aim to connect models of dust evolution and planetesimal formation to identify regions of protoplanetary discs that are favourable for the formation of kilometre-sized bodies and the first planetary embryos. We combine semi-analytical models of…
Context: In planetesimal formation theory, several barriers have been proposed, which are bouncing, fragmentation, and radial drift problems. To understand the structure evolution of dust aggregates is a key in the planetesimal formation. Dust grains become fluffy by coagulation in protoplanetary disks. However, once they become fluffy, they are not sufficiently compressed by collisional compression to form compact planetesimals. Aims: We aim to reveal the pathway of the dust structure evolution from dust grains to compact planetesimals. Methods: Using the compressive strength formula, we anal…
Many massive objects have been found in the outer region of the Solar system. How they were formed and evolved has not been well understood, although there have been intensive studies on accretion process of terrestrial planets. One of the mysteries is the existence of binary planetesimals with near-equal mass components and highly eccentric orbits. These binary planetesimals are quite different from the satellites observed in the asteroid belt region. The ratio of the Hill radius to the physical radius of the planetesimals is much larger for the outer region of the disk, compared to the inner…
A Collective Trigger for Widespread Planetesimal Formation Revealed by Accretion Ages
University of Oxford（牛津大学）；University of Oslo（奥斯陆大学）；University of California Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）；Université Clermont Auvergne（克莱蒙奥弗涅大学）；Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory（劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）
Recent high-resolution interferometric observations of protoplanetary disks at (sub-)millimeter wavelengths reveal omnipresent substructures, such as rings, spirals, and asymmetries. A detailed investigation of eight rings detected in five disks by the DSHARP survey came to the conclusion that all rings are just marginally optically thick with optical depths between 0.2 and 0.5 at a wavelength of 1.25 mm. This surprising result could either be coincidental or indicate that the optical depth in all of the rings is regulated by the same process. We investigated if ongoing planetesimal formation …
