Blum J, Wurm G, Kempf S, Poppe T, Klahr H, Kozasa T, Rott M, Henning T, Dorschner J, Schräpler R, Keller HU, Markiewicz WJ, Mann I, Gustafson BA, Giovane F, Neuhaus D, Fechtig H, Grün E, Feuerbacher B, Kochan H, Ratke L, El Goresy A, Morfill G, Weidenschilling SJ, Schwehm G, Metzler K, Ip WH. Growth and form of planetary seedlings: results from a microgravity aggregation experiment.
Phys Rev Lett 2000;
85:2426-2429. [PMID:
10978073 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.85.2426]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2000] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
The outcome of the first stage of planetary formation, which is characterized by ballistic agglomeration of preplanetary dust grains due to Brownian motion in the free molecular flow regime of the solar nebula, is still somewhat speculative. We performed a microgravity experiment flown onboard the space shuttle in which we simulated, for the first time, the onset of free preplanetary dust accumulation and revealed the structures and growth rates of the first dust agglomerates in the young solar system. We find that a thermally aggregating swarm of dust particles evolves very rapidly and forms unexpected open-structured agglomerates.
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