Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Apr 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011dda....42.0902k&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #42, #9.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Observations indicate that the gaseous circumstellar disks around young stars vary significantly in size, ranging from 10s to 1000s of AU. Models of planet formation depend critically upon the properties of these primordial disks, yet in general it is impossible to connect an existing planetary system with a observed disk. We present a method to constrain the size of our own protosolar nebula using the properties of small body reservoirs in the solar system. After Jupiter formed, it scattered a significant number of remnant planetesimals into highly eccentric orbits. If there had been a massive, extended protoplanetary disk at that time, then the disk would have excited Kozai oscillations in some of the scattered objects, driving them into high-inclination, low-eccentricity orbits. The dissipation of the gaseous disk would strand a population of objects in these high-inclination orbits; orbits that are stable on Gyr timescales. Surveys placing limits on the presence of these high inclination objects can constrain the size of the gaseous protoplanetary disk at the time of Jupiter's formation.
Buie Marc William
Kretke Katherine A.
Levison Harold F.
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