Production of Chondrules by Lightning in the Solar Nebula

Other

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Chondrules, Planetesimals, Solar Nebula

Scientific paper

It is widely believed that chondrules were formed in the solar nebula by transient heating events that melted precursor aggregates of dust grains. The nature of the heating events is unclear, but one persistent suggestion is some sort of electrostatic discharge or "lightning". This idea is attractive because the formation of planetesimals involved settling of particles into a dense layer in the central plane of the nebula. This layer provided an environment with high solids/gas ratio, high opacity, and potentially high concentration of precursor aggregates. Moreover, this dense dusty layer was turbulent due to shear relative to the nebular gas. Such a turbulent dusty environment offers the prospect of charge separation and generation of electrical discharges of some sort. However, arguments for and against lightning remain inconclusive because of limited understanding of the generation of terrestrial lightning and difficulties of scaling such processes to very different conditions in the solar nebula. In the present work I report on efforts to place other constraints on the chondrule-forming process in this context from models of particle settling and coagulation during the formation of planetesimals. Assuming "lightning" can occur, are other conditions met? Can shear-generated turbulence provided enough energy? Does particle coagulation produce sufficient precursor aggregates of the appropriate size? Are chondrules concentrated or sorted aerodynamically, and accreted efficiently into planetesimals?

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

Production of Chondrules by Lightning in the Solar Nebula 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 Production of Chondrules by Lightning in the Solar Nebula, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Production of Chondrules by Lightning in the Solar Nebula will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1615438

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