What is a planet?

Details What is a planet? What is a planet?

2006-08-16

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608359v6

Astron.J.132:2513-2519,2006

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

22 pages, 3 tables, 4 figures, published in Astronomical Journal 132, 2513-1519 (2006)

Scientific paper

10.1086/508861

A planet is an end product of disk accretion around a primary star or substar. I quantify this definition by the degree to which a body dominates the other masses that share its orbital zone. Theoretical and observational measures of dynamical dominance reveal a gap of four to five orders of magnitude separating the eight planets of our solar system from the populations of asteroids and comets. The proposed definition dispenses with upper and lower mass limits for a planet. It reflects the tendency of disk evolution in a mature system to produce a small number of relatively large bodies (planets) in non-intersecting or resonant orbits, which prevent collisions between them.

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