WIND-SHEARING IN GASEOUS PROTOPLANETARY DISKS AND THE EVOLUTION OF BINARY PLANETESIMALS
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street Cambridge, MA 02338 (United States)
One of the first stages of planet formation is the growth of small planetesimals and their accumulation into large planetesimals and planetary embryos. This early stage occurs much before the dispersal of most of the gas from the protoplanetary disk. Due to their different aerodynamic properties, planetesimals of different sizes and shapes experience different drag forces from the gas during this time. Such differential forces produce a wind-shearing (WISH) effect between close by, different-sized planetesimals. For any two planetesimals, a WISH radius can be considered at which the differential acceleration due to the wind becomes greater than the mutual gravitational pull between the planetesimals. We find that the WISH radius could be much smaller than the gravitational shearing radius by the star (the Hill radius). In other words, during the gas-phase of the disk, WISH could play a more important role than tidal perturbations by the star. Here, we study the WISH radii for planetesimal pairs of different sizes and compare the effects of wind and gravitational shearing (drag force versus gravitational tidal force). We then discuss the role of WISH for the stability and survival of binary planetesimals. Binaries are sheared apart by the wind if they are wider than their WISH radius. WISH-stable binaries can also inspiral, and possibly coalesce, due to gas drag. Here, we calculate the WISH radius and the gas-drag-induced merger timescale, providing stability and survival criteria for gas-embedded binary planetesimals. Our results suggest that even WISH-stable binaries may merge in times shorter than the lifetime of the gaseous disk. This may constrain currently observed binary planetesimals to have formed far from the star or at a late stage after the dispersal of most of the disk gas. We note that the WISH radius may also be important for other processes such as planetesimal erosion and planetesimal encounters and collisions in a gaseous environment.
- OSTI ID:
- 21576777
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 733, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/733/1/56; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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