Related papers: Direct contact binary planetesimal formation from …
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…
In the conventional theory of planet formation, it is assumed that protoplanetary disks are axisymmetric and have a smooth radial profile. However, recent radio observations of protoplanetary disks have revealed that many of them have…
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…
Large Kuiper Belt Objects are conventionally thought to have formed out of a massive planetesimal belt that is a few thousand times its current mass. Such a picture, however, is incompatible with multiple lines of evidence. Here, we present…
The initial stages of planet formation in circumstellar gas discs proceed via dust grains that collide and build up larger and larger bodies (Safronov 1969). How this process continues from metre-sized boulders to kilometre-scale…
We propose and analyze a new mechanism for the formation of the wide asynchronous binary population. These binary asteroids have wide semi-major axes relative to most near-Earth and Main Belt asteroid systems. Confirmed members have rapidly…
The size distribution of asteroids in the solar system suggests that they formed top-down, with 100-1000 km bodies forming from the gravitational collapse of dense clumps of small solid particles. We investigate the conditions under which…
Planet formation is often considered in the context of one circumstellar disk around one star. Yet stellar binary systems are ubiquitous, and thus a substantial fraction of all potential planets must form and evolve in more complex,…
Two fundamentally different processes of rocky planet formation exist, but it is unclear which one built the terrestrial planets of the solar system. Either they formed by collisions among planetary embryos from the inner solar system, or…
Numerous circumbinary planets have been discovered in surveys of transiting planets. Often, these planets are found to orbit near to the zone of dynamical instability, close to the central binary. The existence of these planets has been…
We discuss the detectability of gravitationally bounded pairs of gas-giant planets (which we call "binary planets") in extrasolar planetary systems that are formed through orbital instability followed by planet-planet dynamical tides during…
The size distribution of asteroids and Kuiper belt objects in the solar system is difficult to reconcile with a bottom-up formation scenario due to the observed scarcity of objects smaller than $\sim$100 km in size. Instead, planetesimals…
We present the results of planet formation N-body simulations based on a comprehensive physical model that includes planetary mass growth through mutual embryo collisions and planetesimal/boulder accretion, viscous disc evolution, planetary…
Planets form and obtain their compositions from the leftover material present in protoplanetary disks of dust and gas surrounding young stars. The chemical make-up of a disk influences every aspect of planetary composition including their…
Two basic routes for planetesimal formation have been proposed over the last few decades. One is a classical "slow-growth" scenario. Another one is particle concentration models, in which small pebbles are concentrated locally and then…
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…
We explore planet formation in binary systems around the central star where the protoplanetary disk plane is highly inclined with respect to the companion star orbit. This might be the most frequent scenario for binary separations larger…
We investigate the formation of binary stellar systems. We consider a model where a `seed' protobinary system forms, via fragmentation, within a collapsing molecular cloud core and evolves to its final mass by accreting material from an…
About $20\%$ of exoplanets discovered by radial velocity surveys reside in stellar binaries. To clarify their origin one has to understand the dynamics of planetesimals in protoplanetary disks within binaries. The standard description,…
Kuiper belt objects show an unexpected trend, whereby large bodies have increasingly higher densities, up to five times greater than their smaller counterparts. Current explanations for this trend assume formation at constant composition,…