Related papers: Mineral Processing by Short Circuits in Protoplane…
Numerical simulations of pebble dynamics inside gas clumps formed by gravitational instability of protoplanetary discs are presented. We find that dust-mediated Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities transport pebbles inward rapidly via dense…
Mercury's high uncompressed mass density suggests that the planet is largely composed of iron, either bound within metal (mainly Fe-Ni), or iron sulfide. Recent results from the MESSENGER mission to Mercury imply a low temperature history…
The isotopic heterogeneity of the Solar System shown by meteorite analyses is more pronounced for its earliest objects, the Calcium-Aluminum-rich Inclusions (CAIs). This suggests that it was inherited from spatial variations in different…
Hot accretion disks around massive protostars provide a unique opportunity to study ice-free silicate grains that cannot be investigated in protoplanetary disks. We conduct a self-consistent investigation into grain-size evolution and its…
We examine a physical process that leads to the efficient formation of gas giant planets around intermediate mass stars. In the gaseous protoplanetary disks surrounding rapidly-accreting intermediate-mass stars we show that the midplane…
The increasing number of newly detected exoplanets at short orbital periods raises questions about their formation and migration histories. A particular puzzle that requires explanation arises from one of the key results of the Kepler…
Are magnetic fields important in primordial star formation? Assuming that star formation occurs via an accretion disk that is turbulent, initially because of local gravitational instability, we calculate the disk structure for realistic…
Shock wave heating is a leading candidate for the mechanisms of chondrule formation. This mechanism forms chondrules when the shock velocity is in a certain range. If the shock velocity is lower than this range, dust particles smaller than…
Magnetorotational instability (MRI) has a potential to generate the vigorous turbulence in protoplanetary disks, although its turbulence strength and accretion stress remains debatable because of the uncertainty of MRI with low ionization…
Context: The radial drift and fragmentation of small dust grains in protoplanetary discs impedes their growth past centimetre sizes. Several mechanisms have been proposed to overcome these planet formation barriers, such as dust porosity or…
Our current understanding of the physical conditions in the inner regions of protoplanetary discs is becoming increasingly challenged by the more detailed observational and theoretical explorations. Calculation of dust temperature is one of…
The inner regions of protoplanetary disks are promising formation sites of rocky planetesimals. Theoretical studies have proposed a scenario in which thermal ionization activates the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in the hot inner…
Requirements for magnetic coupling and accretion in the active layer of a protostellar disk are re-examined, and some implications for thermal emission from the layer are discussed. The ionization and electrical conductivity are calculated…
Based on the viscous disk theory, a number of recent studies have suggested there is large scale meridional circulation in protoplanetary disks. Such a flow could account for the presence of crystalline silicates, including calcium- and…
Fine-grained rims (FGRs) are frequently found around chondrules in primitive chondrites. The remarkable feature of FGRs is their submicron-sized and non-porous nature. The typical thickness of FGRs around chondrules is 10--100 $\mu$m.…
Context. The dynamics of a low-mass protoplanet accreting solids is influenced by the heating torque, which was found to suppress inward migration in protoplanetary disks with constant opacities. Aims. We investigate the differences of the…
(Abridged) We perform the first study of magnetohydrodynamic processes in the protolunar disk (PLD). With the use of published data on the chemical composition of the PLD, along with existing analytical models of the disk structure, we show…
Organic macromolecular matter is the dominant carrier of volatile elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and noble gases in chondrites -- the rocky building blocks from which Earth formed. How this macromolecular substance formed in space is…
One of the major unresolved problems in cosmochemistry is the origin of chondrules, once molten, spherical silicate droplets with diameters of 0.2 to 2 mm. Chondrules are an essential component of primitive meteorites and perhaps of all…
As gas flowed from the solar accretion disk or solar nebula onto the proto-Sun, magnetic pressure gradients in the solar magnetosphere and the inner solar nebula provided an environment where some of this infalling flow was diverted to…