Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Rapid planetesimal formation in turbulent circumstellar disks

Nature volume 448, pages 1022–1025 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

During the initial stages of planet formation in circumstellar gas disks, dust grains collide and build up larger and larger bodies1. How this process continues from metre-sized boulders to kilometre-scale planetesimals is a major unsolved problem2: boulders are expected to stick together poorly3, and to spiral into the protostar in a few hundred orbits owing to a ‘headwind’ from the slower rotating gas4. Gravitational collapse of the solid component has been suggested to overcome this barrier1,5,6. But even low levels of turbulence will inhibit sedimentation of solids to a sufficiently dense midplane layer2,7, and turbulence must be present to explain observed gas accretion in protostellar disks8. Here we report that boulders can undergo efficient gravitational collapse in locally overdense regions in the midplane of the disk. The boulders concentrate initially in transient high pressure regions in the turbulent gas9, and these concentrations are augmented a further order of magnitude by a streaming instability10,11,12 driven by the relative flow of gas and solids. We find that gravitationally bound clusters form with masses comparable to dwarf planets and containing a distribution of boulder sizes. Gravitational collapse happens much faster than radial drift, offering a possible path to planetesimal formation in accreting circumstellar disks.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Topography of the sedimented particle layer in models without self-gravity or collisional cooling.
Figure 2: Time series of the collapse of overdense seeds into gravitationally bound boulder clusters.
Figure 3: Mass accretion onto a gravitationally bound cluster.

References

  1. Safronov, V. S. Evolution of the Protoplanetary Cloud and Formation of Earth and the Planets (NASA Tech. Transl. F-677, Jerusalem, 1972); translation of Evoliutsiia Doplanetnogo Oblaka (Nauka, Moscow, 1969)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Dominik, C., Blum, J., Cuzzi, J. N. & Wurm, G. in Protostars and Planets V (eds Reipurth, B., Jewitt, D. & Keil, K.) 783–800 (Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson, 2007)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Benz, W. Low velocity collisions and the growth of planetesimals. Space Sci. Rev. 92, 279–294 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Weidenschilling, S. J. Aerodynamics of solid bodies in the solar nebula. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 180, 57–70 (1977)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Goldreich, P. & Ward, W. R. The formation of planetesimals. Astrophys. J. 183, 1051–1062 (1973)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Youdin, A. N. & Shu, F. H. Planetesimal formation by gravitational instability. Astrophys. J. 580, 494–505 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Weidenschilling, S. J. & Cuzzi, J. N. in Protostars and Planets III (eds Levy, E. H. & Lunine, J. I.) 1031–1060 (Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson, 1993)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hartmann, L. Accretion Processes in Star Formation (Cambridge Astrophysics Series No. 32, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Johansen, A., Klahr, H. & Henning, T. Gravoturbulent formation of planetesimals. Astrophys. J. 636, 1121–1134 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Youdin, A. N. & Goodman, J. Streaming instabilities in protoplanetary disks. Astrophys. J. 620, 459–469 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Johansen, A., Henning, T. & Klahr, H. Dust sedimentation and self-sustained Kelvin-Helmholtz turbulence in protoplanetary disk midplanes. Astrophys. J. 643, 1219–1232 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Johansen, A. & Youdin, A. Protoplanetary disk turbulence driven by the streaming instability: Nonlinear saturation and particle concentration. Astrophys. J. 662, 627–641 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Cuzzi, J. N., Dobrovolskis, A. R. & Champney, J. M. Particle-gas dynamics in the midplane of a protoplanetary nebula. Icarus 106, 102–134 (1993)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Balbus, S. A. & Hawley, J. F. Instability, turbulence, and enhanced transport in accretion disks. Rev. Mod. Phys. 70, 1–53 (1998)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Barge, P. & Sommeria, J. Did planet formation begin inside persistent gaseous vortices? Astron. Astrophys. 295, L1–L4 (1995)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Fromang, S. & Nelson, R. P. On the accumulation of solid bodies in global turbulent protoplanetary disc models. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 364, L81–L85 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Rice, W. K. M., Lodato, G., Pringle, J. E., Armitage, P. J. & Bonnell, I. A. Planetesimal formation via fragmentation in self-gravitating protoplanetary discs. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 372, L9–L13 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Cuzzi, J. N., Hogan, R. C., Paque, J. M. & Dobrovolskis, A. R. Size-selective concentration of chondrules and other small particles in protoplanetary nebula turbulence. Astrophys. J. 546, 496–508 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Hockney, R. W. & Eastwood, J. W. Computer Simulation Using Particles (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1981)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. Gammie, C. F. Nonlinear outcome of gravitational instability in cooling, gaseous disks. Astrophys. J. 553, 174–183 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Gammie, C. F. Layered accretion in T Tauri disks. Astrophys. J. 457, 355–362 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Tanga, P., Weidenschilling, S. J., Michel, P. & Richardson, D. C. Gravitational instability and clustering in a disk of planetesimals. Astron. Astrophys. 427, 1105–1115 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Salo, H. Gravitational wakes in Saturn’s rings. Nature 359, 619–621 (1992)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Boss, A. P. Giant planet formation by gravitational instability. Science 276, 1836–1839 (1997)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Mayer, L., Quinn, T., Wadsley, J. & Stadel, J. Formation of giant planets by fragmentation of protoplanetary disks. Science 298, 1756–1759 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Weidenschilling, S. J. Can gravitational instability form planetesimals? Icarus 116, 433–435 (1995)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Dullemond, C. P. & Dominik, C. Dust coagulation in protoplanetary disks: A rapid depletion of small grains. Astron. Astrophys. 434, 971–986 (2005)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Weidenschilling, S. J. The origin of comets in the solar nebula: A unified model. Icarus 127, 290–306 (1997)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Throop, H. B. & Bally, J. Can photoevaporation trigger planetesimal formation? Astrophys. J. 623, L149–L152 (2005)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Haghighipour, N. & Boss, A. P. On pressure gradients and rapid migration of solids in a nonuniform solar nebula. Astrophys. J. 583, 996–1003 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This collaboration was made possible through the support of the Annette Kade Graduate Student Fellowship Program at the American Museum of Natural History. J.S.O. was supported by the US National Science Foundation, as was M.-M.M.L. in part. We thank J. Cuzzi for discussion about the role of cooling in the gravitational collapse.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany,

    Anders Johansen, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, Hubert Klahr & Thomas Henning

  2. Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street at Central Park West, New York, New York 10024-5192, USA,

    Jeffrey S. Oishi & Mordecai-Mark Mac Low

  3. Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA,

    Jeffrey S. Oishi

  4. Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 60 St George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H8, Canada,

    Andrew Youdin

Authors
  1. Anders Johansen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jeffrey S. Oishi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mordecai-Mark Mac Low
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hubert Klahr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Thomas Henning
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Andrew Youdin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anders Johansen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Discussion; Supplementary Notes with Supplementary Figures 1-27 and additional references. (PDF 1763 kb)

Supplementary Video

This file contains Supplementary Video 1. The video follows the column density of dust particles from the onset of self-gravity (at t=0) to where gravitationally bound clumps have formed. The inset shows an enlargement around the densest point in the simulation. Clear accretion features are visible as the clump attracts solid material from the surroundings. (MOV 9878 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Johansen, A., Oishi, J., Low, MM. et al. Rapid planetesimal formation in turbulent circumstellar disks. Nature 448, 1022–1025 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06086

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06086

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing