Radiation pressure mixing of large dust grains in protoplanetary disks

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

For the final version see: Nature 459, 227-229 (14 May 2009)

Scientific paper

10.1038/nature08032

Dusty disks around young stars are formed out of interstellar dust that consists of amorphous, submicrometre grains. Yet the grains found in comets and meteorites, and traced in the spectra of young stars, include large crystalline grains that must have undergone annealing or condensation at temperatures in excess of 1,000 K, even though they are mixed with surrounding material that never experienced temperatures as high as that. This prompted theories of large-scale mixing capable of transporting thermally altered grains from the inner, hot part of accretion disks to outer, colder disk region, but all have assumptions that may be problematic. Here I report that infrared radiation arising from the dusty disk can loft grains bigger than one micrometre out of the inner disk, whereupon they are pushed outwards by stellar radiation pressure while gliding above the disk. Grains re-enter the disk at radii where it is too cold to produce sufficient infrared radiation pressure support for a given grain size and solid density. Properties of the observed disks suggest that this process might be active in almost all young stellar objects and young brown dwarfs.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Radiation pressure mixing of large dust grains in protoplanetary disks does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Radiation pressure mixing of large dust grains in protoplanetary disks, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Radiation pressure mixing of large dust grains in protoplanetary disks will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-400990

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.