RAPID FORMATION OF ICY SUPER-EARTHS AND THE CORES OF GAS GIANT PLANETS

2008/11/28 by Scott J. Kenyon, Benjamin C. Bromley · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/690/2/l140

ApJLetters, accepted; 10 pages of text and 2 figures

arxiv created 2008/11/28 · openalex publication_date 2008/12/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

We describe a coagulation model that leads to the rapid formation of super-Earths and the cores of gas giant planets. Interaction of collision fragments with the gaseous disk is the crucial element of this model. The gas entrains small collision fragments, which rapidly settle to the disk midplane. Protoplanets accrete the fragments and grow to masses ≳1 M ⊕ in ∼ 1 Myr. Our model explains the mass distribution of planets in the solar system and predicts that super-Earths form more frequently than gas giants in low-mass disks.

Citations

• Planet Formation around Stars of Various Masses: Hot Super‐Earths
• Variations on Debris Disks: Icy Planet Formation at 30–150 AU for 1–3M⊙Main‐Sequence Stars
• Accretion in the Early Kuiper Belt. II. Fragmentation
• Disk Frequencies and Lifetimes in Young Clusters
• The Growth of Planetary Embryos: Orderly, Runaway, or Oligarchic?
• Evolution of Debris Disks
• Models of giant planet formation with migration and disc evolution
• The Keck Planet Search: Detectability and the Minimum Mass and Orbital Period Distribution of Extrasolar Planets

Cited by

• ON THE SEMIMAJOR AXIS DISTRIBUTION OF EXTRASOLAR GAS GIANT PLANETS: WHY HOT JUPITERS ARE RARE AROUND HIGH-MASS STARS
• A Statistical Analysis of SEEDS and Other High-Contrast Exoplanet Surveys: Massive Planets or Low-Mass Brown Dwarfs?