planetary embryos Archives

Snapshots showing the dynamical evolution of the Solar System in the Grand Tack model. The four gas giants are represented by the black filled circles. Jupiter starts fully formed while the other giants planets grow. Terrestrial planetary embryos are represented by open circles. Water-rich and water-poor planetesimals/asteroids are shown by blue and red small dots, respectively. During the inward migration phase Jupiter shepherds planetesimals and planetary embryos, thus creating a confined disk around 1 AU. Saturn encounters Jupiter and both planets start to migrate outwards at about 100 kyr. During the outward migration phase the giant planets scatter planetesimals inward and repopulate the previously depleted belt with a mix of asteroids originated from different regions. Figure reproduced from Walsh et al. (2011Snapshots showing the dynamical evolution of the Solar System in the Grand Tack model. The four gas giants are represented by the black filled circles. Jupiter starts fully formed while the other giants planets grow. Terrestrial planetary embryos are represented by open circles. Water-rich and water-poor planetesimals/asteroids are shown by blue and red small dots, respectively. During the inward migration phase Jupiter shepherds planetesimals and planetary embryos, thus creating a confined disk around 1 AU. Saturn encounters Jupiter and both planets start to migrate outwards at about 100 kyr. During the outward migration phase the giant planets scatter planetesimals inward and repopulate the previously depleted belt with a mix of asteroids originated from different regions. Figure reproduced from Walsh et al. (2011). -- astro-ph.EP). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

Formation Of Terrestrial Planets

by Keith CowingNovember 18, 2024November 18, 2024

Our understanding of the process of terrestrial planet formation has grown markedly over the past 20 years, yet key questions remain. This review begins by first addressing the critical, earliest […]

Planetary formation -- Grok via Astrobiology.com

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

Did The Terrestrial Planets Of The Solar System Form By Pebble Accretion?

by Keith CowingNovember 15, 2024November 15, 2024

The dominant accretion process leading to the formation of the terrestrial planets of the Solar System is a subject of intense scientific debate. Two radically different scenarios have been proposed.

The mass of the late veneer, measured relatively to planet’s final mass, versus the time of the last giant impact on the Earth-sized planets of our simulations. We also plot the same quantities for the best 10 simulations of Nesvorny et al. (2021) as black crosses. The blue shaded region indicates the range of possible times of the Moon-forming event inferred from combining several lunar chronometers (Kleine and Nimmo, 2024). The red shaded region indicates the relative amount of late veneer accreted by Earth as deduced from the abundance of highly siderophile elements in the bulk silicate Earth (Walker, 2009). --astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

Terrestrial Planet Formation From A Ring: Long-term Simulations Accounting For The Giant Planet Instability

by Keith CowingApril 29, 2024April 29, 2024

The process leading to the formation of the terrestrial planet remains elusive. In a previous publication, we have shown that, if the first generation of planetesimals forms in a ring […]

An illustration showing how some Earth’s signature features, such as its abundance of water and its overall oxidized state could potentially be attributable to interactions between the molecular hydrogen atmospheres and magma oceans on the planetary embryos that comprised Earth’s formative years. CREDIT Illustration by Edward Young/UCLA and Katherine Cain/Carnegie Institution for Science.

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

How Did Earth Get Its Water?

by Keith CowingApril 12, 2023April 12, 2023

Our planet’s water could have originated from interactions between the hydrogen-rich atmospheres and magma oceans of the planetary embryos that comprised Earth’s formative years, according to new work from Carnegie […]

planetary embryos

Formation Of Terrestrial Planets

Did The Terrestrial Planets Of The Solar System Form By Pebble Accretion?

Terrestrial Planet Formation From A Ring: Long-term Simulations Accounting For The Giant Planet Instability

How Did Earth Get Its Water?

The Emergence Of Life In The Light Of Evolution

ReactionAtlas: Ab Origine Exploration Of Chemical Reaction Networks With Machine Learning

Mass Constraints For The K2-223 System Planets: An Ultra-short-period sub-Earth, A Short-period Super-Earth, And A Tentative Long-period Giant Planet

Double Gravity-Assist Rendezvous Trajectory to Halley’s Comet Using Deep-Space Low Thrust

Photometric Characterization Of Near-Earth Asteroids: Rotation, Taxonomy, And Candidate Evidence For Internal Cohesion