Related papers: Mercury's Protoplanetary Mass
In an earlier work, we found that large metallic iron fractions in dust aggregates and strong magnetic fields boost preplanetary growth. This sets an initial bias for the formation of Mercury-like planets in the inner part of protoplanetary…
The construction of models for the internal constitution and the temporal evolution of large planetesimals, the parent bodies of chondrites, requires information on the heat conductivity of the complex mixture of minerals and iron metal…
Stars and planets both form by accreting material from a surrounding disk. Because they grow from the same material, theory predicts that there should be a relationship between their compositions. In this study, we search for a…
For planets other than Earth, interpretation of the composition and structure depends largely on comparing the mass and radius with the composition expected given their distance from the parent star. The composition implies a mass-radius…
The role of metallicity in shaping protoplanetary disk evolution remains poorly comprehended. This study analyzes the disk fraction of 10 young (0.9-2.1 Myr) and low-metallicity (0.34-0.83 Z$_{\odot}$) clusters located in the outer Milky…
Among extinct radioactivities present in meteorites, 60Fe (t1/2 = 1.49 Myr) plays a key role as a high-resolution chronometer, a heat source in planetesimals, and a fingerprint of the astrophysical setting of solar system formation. A…
We present observations and analyses of eight white dwarf stars that have accreted rocky material from their surrounding planetary systems. The spectra of these helium-atmosphere white dwarfs contain detectable optical lines of all four…
The high density of the close-in extrasolar planet HD149026b suggests the presence of a huge core in the planet, which challenges planet formation theory. We first derive constraints on the amount of heavy elements and hydrogen/helium…
Stars in the solar neighbourhood have refractory element ratios slightly different from the Sun. It is unclear how much the condensation of solids and thus the composition of planets forming around these stars is affected. We aim to…
Dynamical models of planet formation coupled with cosmochemical data from martian meteorites show that Mars' isotopic composition is distinct from that of Earth. Reconciliation of formation models with meteorite data require that Mars grew…
Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites are known for having high water and organic material contents, including amino acids. Here we address the origin of amino acids in the warm interiors of their parent bodies (planetesimals) within a few…
We suggest that planets, brown dwarfs, and even low mass stars can be formed by fragmentation of protoplanetary disks around very massive stars M>~100 solar masses. We discuss how fragmentation conditions make the formation of very massive…
Planets with sizes between those of Earth and Neptune divide into two populations: purely rocky bodies whose atmospheres contribute negligibly to their sizes, and larger gas-enveloped planets possessing voluminous and optically thick…
Transiting planet surveys like Kepler have provided a wealth of information on the distribution of planetary radii, particularly for the new populations of super-Earth and sub-Neptune sized planets. In order to aid in the physical…
Published reflectance data covering several different wavelength intervals has been combined and analyzed in order to determine the spherical bolometric albedo of Mercury. The resulting value of 0.088 +/- 0.003 spans wavelengths from 0 to 4…
Meteorites contain minerals from Solar System asteroids with different properties (like size, presence of water, core formation). We provide new mid-IR transmission spectra of powdered meteorites to obtain templates of how mid-IR spectra of…
We use new interior models of cold planets to investigate the mass-radius relationships of solid exoplanets, considering planets made primarily of iron, silicates, water, and carbon compounds. We find that the mass-radius relationships for…
Planets are thought to form via accretion from a remnant disk of gas and solids around a newly formed star. During this process material in the disk either remains bound to the star as part of either a planet, a smaller celestial body, or…
We review models of chondrite component transport in the gaseous protoplanetary disk. Refractory inclusions were likely transported by turbulent diffusion and possible early disk expansion, and required low turbulence for their subsequent…
Chondritic meteorites provide valuable opportunities to investigate the origins of the solar system. We explore impact jetting as a mechanism of chondrule formation and subsequent pebble accretion as a mechanism of accreting chondrules onto…