Related papers: Mineral Processing by Short Circuits in Protoplane…
We investigate the occurrence of accretion bursts, dust accumulation, and the prospects for planetesimal formation in a gravitationally unstable magnetized protoplanetary disk with globally suppressed but episodically triggered…
In our solar system, terrestrial planets and meteoritical matter exhibit various bulk compositions. To understand this variety of compositions, formation mechanisms of meteorites are usually investigated via a thermodynamic approach that…
We hypothesize strong (transonic) twin toroidal recirculation zones above and below the accretion disk midplane, rather close-in to the protosun, to be the source of chondrules and calcium-aluminum inclusions (CAIs). The recirculation zones…
The pathway to forming the iron-rich planet Mercury remains mysterious. Mercury's core makes up 70% of the planetary mass, which implies a significant enrichment of iron relative to silicates, while its mantle is strongly depleted in…
Volatiles are compounds with low sublimation temperatures, and they make up most of the condensible mass in typical planet-forming environments. They consist of relatively small, often hydrogenated, molecules based on the abundant elements…
The origin of Mercury's anomalous core and low FeO surface mineralogy are outstanding questions in planetary science. Mercury's composition may result from cosmochemical controls on the precursor solids that accreted to form Mercury. High…
Many planets orbit within an AU of their stars, raising questions about their origins. Particularly puzzling are the planets found near the silicate sublimation front. We investigate conditions near the front in the protostellar disk around…
Among many physical processes involved in star formation, radiation transfer is one of the key processes since it dominantly controls the thermodynamics. Because metallicities control opacities, they are one of the important environmental…
Many protostellar disks show central cavities, rings, or spiral arms likely caused by low-mass stellar or planetary companions, yet few such features are conclusively tied to bodies embedded in the disks. We note that even small features on…
Asteroids and meteorites provide key evidence on the formation of planetesimals in the Solar System. Asteroids are traditionally thought to form in a bottom-up process by coagulation within a population of initially km-scale planetesimals.…
Chondrules are primitive materials in the Solar System. They are formed in the first about 3 Myr of the Solar System's history. This timescale is longer than that of Mars formation, and it is conceivable that protoplanets, planetesimals and…
Embedded, Class 0/I protostellar disks represent the initial condition for planet formation. This calls for better understandings of their bulk properties and the dust grains within them. We model multi-wavelength dust continuum…
Presolar grains are small particles found in meteorites through their isotopic compositions which are considerably different from those of materials in the Solar System. If some isotopes in presolar grains diffused out beyond their grain…
In a set of 16 drop tower experiments the motion of sub-mm to mm-sized particles under microgravity was observed. Illumination by a halogen lamp induced acceleration of the particles due to photophoresis. Photophoresis on dust-free…
Magnetic fields likely play a key role in the dynamics and evolution of protoplanetary discs. They have the potential to efficiently transport angular momentum by MHD turbulence or via the magnetocentrifugal acceleration of outflows from…
The remanent magnetisation of meteorite material in the solar system indicates that magnetic fields of several Gauss are present in the protoplanetary disk. It is shown that such relativelystrong magnetic fields can be generated in dusty…
We present the results of eighteen magnetohydrodynamical calculations of the collapse of a molecular cloud core to form a protostar. Some calculations include radiative transfer in the flux-limited diffusion approximation while others…
The formation of planetesimals was an integral part of the cascading series of processes that built the terrestrial planets. To illuminate planetesimal formation, here we develop a refined thermal evolution model to calculate the formation…
We present a comprehensive evolutionary model of the Sun's protoplanetary disk, constructed to resolve the "CAI Storage" problem of meteoritics. We predict the abundances of calcium-rich, aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) and refractory…
Calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) in carbonaceous chondritic meteorites are the oldest relics in the solar system. Notably, their radiogenic age feature a brief (100 kyr) condensation episode. In contrast, the reservoirs of the…