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T. Currie (UCLA)
The effects of gas pressure gradients on the motion of solid grains in the solar nebula substantially enhances the efficiency of forming protoplanetary cores in the standard core accretion model in 'hybrid' scenarios for gas/ice giant planet formation. Such a scenario is 'migration-enhanced' core accretion which results from Epstein-drag induced inward radial migration of mm-sized grains needed to build up a population of 1 km planetesimals. Solid/gas ratios can be enhanced by nearly ~10 times over those in Minimum Mass Solar Nebula (MMSN) in the outer solar nebula (a > 20 AU), increasing the oligarchic core masses and decreasing formation timescales for protoplanetary cores. A 10 earth mass core can form on ~107 years timescales at 15 - 25 AU compared to ~108 year timescales in the standard model, alleviating the major problem plaguing the core accretion model for gas/ice giant planet formation.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.