Formation of giant planets by fragmentation of protoplanetary disks
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The evolution of gravitationally unstable protoplanetary gaseous disks has been studied with the use of three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations with unprecedented resolution. We have considered disks with initial masses and temperature profiles consistent with those inferred for the protosolar nebula and for other protoplanetary disks. We show that long-lasting, self-gravitating protoplanets arise after a few disk orbital periods if cooling is efficient enough to maintain the temperature close to 50 K. The resulting bodies have masses and orbital eccentricities similar to those of detected extrasolar planets.
13 pages, 2 Figures. Text and artwork are slightly different from the version published on Science. More hi-res picture and movies can be found at http://www.astro.washington.edu/mayer
13 pages, 2 Figures. Text and artwork are slightly different from the version published on Science. More hi-res picture and movies can be found at http://www.astro.washington.edu/mayer