Is There a Temperature Limit in Planet Formation at 1000 K?

Abstract

Dust drifting inward in protoplanetary disks is subject to increasing temperatures. In laboratory experiments, we tempered basaltic dust between 873 K and 1273 K and find that the dust grains change in size and composition. These modifications influence the outcome of self-consistent low speed aggregation experiments showing a transition temperature of 1000\,K. Dust tempered at lower temperatures grows to a maximum aggregate size of $2.02\pm 0.06$ mm, which is $1.49\pm 0.08$ times the value for dust tempered at higher temperatures. A similar size ratio of $1.75\pm 0.16$ results for a different set of collision velocities. This transition temperature is in agreement with orbit temperatures deduced for observed extrasolar planets. Most terrestrial planets are observed at positions equivalent to less than 1000 K. Dust aggregation on the millimeter-scale at elevated temperatures might therefore be a key factor for terrestrial planet formation.

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Seeding the Formation of Mercurys: An Iron-sensitive Bouncing Barrier in Disk Magnetic Fields
• Drifting inwards in protoplanetary discs I Sticking of chondritic dust at increasing temperatures
• Experimental study of clusters in dense granular gas and implications for the particle stopping time in protoplanetary disks
• Laboratory Experiments on the Motion of Dense Dust Clouds
• Accretion of eroding pebbles and planetesimals in planetary envelopes