Binary planetesimals and their role in planet formation
arXiv:1012.0567 · doi:10.1088/2041-8205/727/1/L3
Abstract
One of the main evolutionary stages of planet formation is the dynamical evolution of planetesimal disks. These disks are thought to evolve through gravitational encounters and physical collisions between single planetesimals. In recent years, many binary planetesimals have been observed in the Solar system, indicating that the binarity of planetesimals is high. However, current studies of planetesimal disks formation and evolution do not account for the role of binaries. Here we point out that gravitational encounters of binary planetesimals can have an important role in the evolution of planetesimal disks. Binary planetesimals catalyze close encounters between planetesimals, and can strongly enhance their collision rate. Binaries may also serve as additional heating source of the planetesimal disk, through the exchange of the binaries gravitational potential energy into the kinetic energy of planetesimals in the disk.
Accepted to ApJL
References in corpus (5)
- Formation of Kuiper Belt Binaries by Gravitational Collapse
- Formation of Kuiper-belt binaries through multiple chaotic scattering encounters with low-mass intruders
- Formation of Kuiper Belt Binaries
- Fraction of Contact Binary Trojan Asteroids
- Production of trans-Neptunian binaries through chaos-assisted capture
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- The aeolian-erosion barrier for the growth of metre-size objects in protoplanetary-discs
- Application of Gas Dynamical Friction for Planetesimals: II. Evolution of Binary Planetesimals
- Binary Candidates in the Jovian Trojan and Hilda Populations from NEOWISE Lightcurves
- Binaries are softer than they seem: Effects of an external potential on the scattering dynamics of binaries
- The Multiple Origin of Blue Straggler Stars: Theory vs. Observations