DID PLANET FORMATION BEGIN INSIDE PERSISTENT GASEOUS VORTICES?

TL;DR

This paper proposes that long-lived gaseous vortices in protoplanetary disks can capture solids and initiate planet formation, explaining features of the solar system such as planet distribution and core formation.

Contribution

It introduces a model where persistent vortices in turbulent nebulae can naturally lead to planet formation, aligning with observed solar system features.

Findings

Maximum captured mass near Jupiter's orbit

Rapid collapse of low-density particles into giant planet cores

Formation of terrestrial planets from high-density particle assembly

Abstract

We explore here the idea, reminiscent in some respect of Von Weizsacker's (1944) and Alfven's (1976) outmoded cosmogonies, that long-lived vortices in a turbulent protoplanetary nebula can capture large amount of solid particles and initiate the formation of planets. Some puzzling features of the solar system appear as natural consequences of our simple model: - The captured mass presents a maximum near Jupiter's orbit. - Outside this optimal orbit, the collected material, mainly composed of low density particles, sinks deeply into the vortices and rapidly collapses into massive bodies at the origin of the solid core of the giant planets. - Inside this orbit, by contrast, the high density particles are preferentially selected by the vortices and assembled by local gravitational instabilities into planetesimals, massive enough to be released by the vortices and to grow later, in successive collisions, to form the terrestrial planets. - The captured mass presents a maximum near Jupiter's orbit. - Outside this optimal orbit, the collected material, mainly composed of low density particles, sinks deeply into the vortices and rapidly collapses into massive bodies at the origin of the solid core of the giant planets. - Inside this orbit, by contrast, the high density particles are preferentially selected by the vortices and assembled by local gravitational instabilities into planetesimals, massive enough to be released by the vortices and to grow later, in successive collisions, to form the terrestrial planets.