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R.K. Barnes (Univ. of Washington), D.C. Richardson (Univ. of Maryland), J.M. Hahn (Lunar and Planetary Institute)
We present results of numerical simulations on the effects of close stellar encounters on planetesimal disks. A disk composed of 100,000 particles is perturbed by a passing star, with the encounter being typical of those occurring in an open stellar cluster. These simulations will examine the importance of the disk's self--gravity (namely, the propagation of spiral bending and density waves) during and after the encounter, and will also explore how stellar encounters can affect planet formation.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: rory@astro.washington.edu