* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Extra-solar planetesimals

Blobrana · L

Title: An alternative origin for debris rings of planetesimals
Authors: Sergei Nayakshin, Seung-Hoon Cha

Core Accretion, the most widely accepted scenario for planet formation, postulates existence of km-sized solid bodies, called planetesimals, arranged in a razor-thin disc in the earliest phases of planet formation. In the Tidal Downsizing hypothesis, an alternative scenario for formation of planets, grain growth, sedimentation and formation of planetary cores occur inside dense and massive gas clumps formed in the outer cold disc by gravitational instability. As a clump migrates inward, tidal forces of the star remove all or most of the gas from the clump, downsizing it to a planetary mass body. Here we argue that such a clump may form not only the planetary core but also numerous smaller bodies. As an example, we consider the simplest case of bodies on circular orbits around the planetary core in the centre of the gas clump. Bodies smaller than 1 km suffer a strong enough aerodynamic drag, spiral in and accrete onto the solid core rapidly; bodies in the planetesimal size range lose their centrifugal support very slowly. We find that planetesimals orbiting the protoplanetary core closely remain gravitationally bound to it; these may be relevant to formation of satellites of giant planets. Planetesimals on more distant orbits within the host clump are unbound from the protoplanet and are set on mildly eccentric heliocentric orbits, generically forming wide rings. These may correspond to debris discs around main sequence stars and the Kuiper belt in the Solar System. For the latter in particular, our hypothesis naturally explains the observed sharp outer edge and the "mass deficit" of the Kuiper belt.

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Blobrana · L

Title: Will LSST detect extra-solar planetesimals entering the Solar system?
Authors: Amaya Moro-Martin, Edwin L. Turner, Abraham Loeb

Planetesimal formation is a common by-product of the star formation process. Taking the dynamical history of the Solar system as a guideline -- in which the planetesimal belts were heavily depleted due to gravitational perturbation with the giant planets -- and assuming similar processes have take place in other planetary systems, one would expect the interestellar space to be filled with extra-solar planetesimals. However, not a single one of these objects has been detected so far entering the Solar system, even though it would clearly be distinguishable from a Solar system comet due to its highly hyperbolic orbit. LSST will provide wide coverage maps of the sky to a very high sensitivity, ideal to detect moving objects like comets, both active and inactive. In anticipation of these observations, we estimate how many inactive "interstellar comets" might be detected during the duration of the survey. The calculation takes into account estimates (from observations and models) of the number density of stars, the amount of solids available to form planetesimals, the frequency of planet and planetesimal formation, the efficiency of planetesimal ejection, and the possible size distribution of these small bodies.

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