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PLANET FORMATION

Archaeology of the Solar System

Nature Astronomy volume 6, pages 16–17 (2022)Cite this article

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A new model for the origin of the Solar System proposes planet building blocks formed fast from material that was transported outwards to cooler regions. It claims to be consistent with the properties of ancient meteorites.

Planets form as a byproduct of star formation. Conservation of angular momentum ensures that part of the collapsing material ends up in a disk, out of which planets form by conglomeration of the condensable material. Analysis of planet formation is however hindered by its short duration — at most several millions of years, compared to the 4.5 Gyr lifetime of the Solar System, and by the fact that it takes place in dust-obscured disks on scales that are tiny when viewed from Earth. As of today, with few notable exceptions1, direct evidence of planet formation-in-action remains elusive. However, for the Solar System additional data comes in the form of meteorites. These stones — older than the Earth — can be meticulously analysed to offer clues on when and how the building blocks of planets came into existence. Based on such recent inferences2, Alessandro Morbidelli and colleagues3 find that the proto-solar disk started out ultra-compact, spreading outwards from material that entered close to the star. Solid material then condensed out at evaporation fronts: the silicate iceline at ~1 au and the water iceline at ~5 au. Morbidelli et al. envision these locations to be the birthplace of the terrestrial and giant planets, respectively.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of the Solar System formation model by Morbidelli et al.

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  1. Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Chris Ormel

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  1. Chris Ormel
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Correspondence to Chris Ormel.

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Ormel, C. Archaeology of the Solar System. Nat Astron 6, 16–17 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01521-x

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