Related papers: Possible thermal evolutionary pathways of irregula…
Terrestrial planet formation (TPF) is a difficult problem that has vexed researchers for decades. Numerical models are only partially successful at reproducing the orbital architecture of the inner planets, but have generally not considered…
Lava planets likely did not form in their current orbits, instead migrating inward via orbital decay, which influenced the evolution of their magma oceans. We introduce a coupled thermal-orbital evolution model to explore how rocky planets…
An unsolved issue in the standard core accretion model for gaseous planet formation is how kilometre-sized planetesimals form from, initially, micron-sized dust grains. Solid growth beyond metre sizes can be difficult both because the…
Peak temperatures inside meteorite parent bodies are closely linked to accretion times. Most iron meteorites come from bodies that accreted <0.5 Myr after CAIs formed and were melted by 26Al and 60Fe, probably inside 2 AU. Chondrite groups…
During the late stage of planet formation when Mars-size cores appear, interactions among planetary cores can excite their orbital eccentricities, speed their merges and thus sculpture the final architecture of planet systems. This series…
A substantial number of super-Earths have been discovered, and atmospheres of transiting super-Earths have also been observed by transmission spectroscopy. Several lines of observational evidence indicate that most super-Earths do not…
Our goal is to understand primary accretion of the first planetesimals. The primitive meteorite record suggests that sizeable planetesimals formed in the asteroid belt over a period longer than a million years, each composed entirely of an…
The timing of formation for the first planetesimals determines the mode of planetary accretion and their geophysical and compositional evolution. Astronomical observations of circumstellar discs and Solar System geochronology provide…
Large main-belt asteroids (diameter $D \gtrsim 120\ \mathrm{km}$) exhibit a surface composition gradient as a function of heliocentric distance, ranging from anhydrous bodies to those rich in hydrated and, possibly, ammoniated materials.…
Newly-formed planetary systems with ages of <10 Myr offer many unique insights into the formation, evolution, and fundamental properties of extrasolar planets. These planets have fallen beyond the limits of past surveys, but as we enter the…
We study the evolution of cold, gravitationally unstable protoplanetary gaseous disks performing 3D SPH simulations with up to a million particles on large parallel machines. We show that self-gravitating protoplanets can form in disks with…
We use a multiannulus planetesimal accretion code to investigate the growth of icy planets in the outer regions of a planetesimal disk. In a quiescent minimum mass solar nebula, icy planets grow to sizes of 1000--3000 km on a timescale t =…
Short-period Earth to Neptune size exoplanets (super-Earths) with voluminous gas envelopes seem to be very common. These gas atmospheres are thought to have originated from the protoplanetary disk in which the planets were embedded during…
Proto-planets embedded in their natal disks acquire hot envelopes as they grow and accrete solids. This ensures that the material they accrete - pebbles, as well as (small) planetesimals - will vaporize to enrich their atmospheres.…
In granular systems, thermal cycling causes compaction, creep, penetration of dense objects, and ratcheting of grains against each other. On asteroid surfaces, thermal cycling is high amplitude and can happen billions of times in a few…
The formation of planets depends on the underlying protoplanetary disc structure, which influences both the accretion and migration rates of embedded planets. The disc itself evolves on time-scales of several Myr during which both…
We calculate the evolution of gas giant planets during the runaway gas accretion phase of formation, to understand how the luminosity of young giant planets depends on the accretion conditions. We construct steady-state envelope models, and…
A remarkable discovery of NASA's Kepler mission is the wide diversity in the average densities of planets of similar mass. After gas disk dissipation, fully formed planets could interact with nearby planetesimals from a remnant planetesimal…
We have investigated i) the formation of gravitationally bounded pairs of gas-giant planets (which we call "binary planets") from capturing each other through planet-planet dynamical tide during their close encounters and ii) the following…
The locations of the fully despun, double synchronous end states of tidal evolution are derived for spherical components. With the exception of nearly equal-mass binaries, binary asteroid systems are in the midst of lengthy tidal…