Dead Zones, Dust Drift, and Terrestrial Planet Formation
Abstract
The established theory of terrestrial planet formation provides a mapping between the initial distribution of planetesimals and the architecture of the resulting planetary systems. I will review the basic predictions of this theory, along with its main uncertainties. To address questions of habitability, we would like to step back and ask how the distribution and composition of planetesimals are themselves determined from the physics of protoplanetary disks. I will discuss theoretical expectations for the structure of protoplanetary disks at small scales, and argue that there is a strong motivation to consider planet formation models in which radial drift and particle traps play a major role.
- Publication:
-
Habitable Worlds Across Time and Space
- Pub Date:
- April 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014hwat.confP...2A