How the Earth survived birth
Thursday, January 7, 2010 - 12:07
in Astronomy & Space
For the last 20 years, the best models of planet formation -or how planets grow from dust in a gas disk -- have contradicted the very existence of Earth. These models assumed locally constant temperatures within a disk, and the planets plunge into the Sun. Now, new simulations from researchers at the American Museum of Natural History and the University of Cambridge show that variations in temperature can lead to regions of outward and inward migration that safely trap planets on orbits. When the protoplanetary disk begins to dissipate, planets are left behind, safe from impact with their parent star. The results of this research are being presented this week at the 2010 meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.