[Previous] | [Session 12] | [Next]

[12.02] Migration of Solids in a Non-uniform Gravitationally Unstable Disk

N. Haghighipour (Carnegie Institution of Washington)

It has recently been realized that a solar nebula capable of forming gas giant planets, either through core accretion model or the disk instability scenario, is likely to be marginally gravitationally unstable. It is, therefore, fundamentally important to investigate the implications for the collisional aggregation and orbital evolution of small bodies, ranging from dust grains to planetesimals, orbiting in such an unstable disk.

I present the results of a systematic numerical study of the orbital evolution of small bodies, subject to Epstein and Stokes drags and the self-gravity of the disk, in the terrestrial planet region of a marginally gravitationally unstable model of the solar nebula. I will show that for a disk with a non-uniform density, as a result of deviation of the orbital velocities from Keplerian values, bodies at both sides of the location of a peak in the radial density distribution, undergo radial migration toward the central peak. The implications of such migrations for collisional coagulation and possibly formation of terrestrial planets are discussed.

[Previous] | [Session 12] | [Next]

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #3
© 2002. The American Astronomical Society.