DAVID KIRSH RALPH PUDRITZ

IAU 276 TORINO 2010

Planetesimal Formation in Turbulent Circumstellar

Disks

Planetesimal Formation

Planetesimals can’t grow from dust to protoplanet simply by snowballing through the disk Fall into the central star Fragment rather than stick

Rocks and dust can be gathered in turbulent clumps in the disk gas

If enough are gathered, they can collapse under their own gravity to create large planetesimals

Johansen, A., Oishi, J. S., Mac Low, M.-M., Klahr, H., Henning, T., & Youdin, A. 2007a, Nature, 448, 1022

Simulation

FLASH adaptive mesh refinement code with active particles Global simulations of the inner disk, torus of particles

embedded

Particle settling

First stage is the settling of particles down to the midplane

Particles differentiate