Bifurcation of planetary building blocks during Solar System formation

2021/01/21 by Tim Lichtenberg, Joanna Drazkowska, Joanna Dra̧żkowska +3 · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Formation and evolution of the Solar System #Planet #Planetary system #Planetesimal #Protoplanet #Protoplanetary disk #Solar System #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.SR #physics.geo-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.abb3091

published as Science, 371, 6527, 365 (2021) · Published 21 January 2021; authors' version; 30 pages, 18 figures; summary available at http://bit.ly/BifurcationBlog (blog) and https://bit.ly/BifurcationVideo (video)

arxiv created 2021/01/21 · openalex publication_date 2021/01/21 · arxiv updated 2021/01/22 · openalex created_date 2021/02/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Geochemical and astronomical evidence demonstrates that planet formation occurred in two spatially and temporally separated reservoirs. The origin of this dichotomy is unknown. We use numerical models to investigate how the evolution of the solar protoplanetary disk influenced the timing of protoplanet formation and their internal evolution. Migration of the water snow line can generate two distinct bursts of planetesimal formation that sample different source regions. These reservoirs evolve in divergent geophysical modes and develop distinct volatile contents, consistent with constraints from accretion chronology, thermochemistry, and the mass divergence of inner and outer Solar System. Our simulations suggest that the compositional fractionation and isotopic dichotomy of the Solar System was initiated by the interplay between disk dynamics, heterogeneous accretion, and internal evolution of forming protoplanets.

Citations

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Cited by

• Hidden Water in Magma Ocean Exoplanets
• Redox Hysteresis of Super-Earth Exoplanets from Magma Ocean Circulation
• Setting the Stage: The Early History of the Solar System
• Effects of pebble accretion on the growth and composition of planetesimals in the inner Solar system
• System-level Fractionation of Carbon from Disk and Planetesimal Processing
• A population of transition disks around evolved stars: Fingerprints of planets
• Size-Frequency Distribution of Terrestrial Leftover Planetesimals and S-complex Implanted Asteroids