planetary accretion
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astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...
, accretion is the accumulation of particles into a massive object by
gravitationally In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stron ...
attracting more matter, typically
gas Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...
eous matter, in an
accretion disk An accretion disk is a structure (often a circumstellar disk) formed by diffuse material in orbital motion around a massive central body. The central body is typically a star. Friction, uneven irradiance, magnetohydrodynamic effects, and other fo ...
. Most
astronomical object An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists in the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms ''object'' and ''body'' are often us ...
s, such as
galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...
,
star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
s, and
planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...
s, are formed by accretion processes.


Overview

The accretion model that Earth and the other
terrestrial planet A terrestrial planet, telluric planet, or rocky planet, is a planet that is composed primarily of silicate rocks or metals. Within the Solar System, the terrestrial planets accepted by the IAU are the inner planets closest to the Sun: Mercury, Ve ...
s formed from meteoric material was proposed in 1944 by
Otto Schmidt Otto Yulyevich Shmidt, be, Ота Юльевіч Шміт, Ota Juljevič Šmit (born Otto Friedrich Julius Schmidt; – 7 September 1956), better known as Otto Schmidt, was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesm ...
, followed by the ''protoplanet theory'' of William McCrea (1960) and finally the ''capture theory'' of
Michael Woolfson Michael Mark Woolfson (9 January 1927 – 23 December 2019) was a Great Britain, British physicist and Planetary Science, planetary scientist. His research interests were in the fields of x-ray crystallography, biophysics, colour vision and the ...
.
For details of Kant's position, see
In 1978,
Andrew Prentice Andrew Prentice is an Australian mathematician. He is known for developing an alternative model of planetary formation. In contrast to the conventional model where planetary accretion occurs within a continuous disk, according to Prentice's "Mod ...
resurrected the initial Laplacian ideas about planet formation and developed the ''modern Laplacian theory''. None of these models proved completely successful, and many of the proposed theories were descriptive. The 1944 accretion model by Otto Schmidt was further developed in a quantitative way in 1969 by Viktor Safronov. He calculated, in detail, the different stages of terrestrial planet formation. Since then, the model has been further developed using intensive numerical simulations to study
planetesimal Planetesimals are solid objects thought to exist in protoplanetary disks and debris disks. Per the Chamberlin–Moulton planetesimal hypothesis, they are believed to form out of cosmic dust grains. Believed to have formed in the Solar System a ...
accumulation. It is now accepted that stars form by the gravitational collapse of
interstellar gas In astronomy, the interstellar medium is the matter and radiation that exist in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as dust and cosmic rays. It fills interstella ...
. Prior to collapse, this gas is mostly in the form of molecular clouds, such as the
Orion Nebula The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the nig ...
. As the cloud collapses, losing potential energy, it heats up, gaining kinetic energy, and the conservation of
angular momentum In physics, angular momentum (rarely, moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a conserved quantity—the total angular momentum of a closed syst ...
ensures that the cloud forms a flattened disk—the
accretion disk An accretion disk is a structure (often a circumstellar disk) formed by diffuse material in orbital motion around a massive central body. The central body is typically a star. Friction, uneven irradiance, magnetohydrodynamic effects, and other fo ...
.


Accretion of galaxies

A few hundred thousand years after the
Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
, the
Universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...
cooled to the point where atoms could form. As the Universe continued to expand and cool, the atoms lost enough kinetic energy, and
dark matter Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not ab ...
coalesced sufficiently, to form protogalaxies. As further accretion occurred,
galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...
formed. Indirect evidence is widespread. Galaxies grow through
mergers Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
and smooth gas accretion. Accretion also occurs inside galaxies, forming stars.


Accretion of stars

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
s are thought to form inside giant clouds of cold
molecular hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, ...
giant molecular cloud A molecular cloud, sometimes called a stellar nursery (if star formation is occurring within), is a type of interstellar cloud, the density and size of which permit absorption nebulae, the formation of molecules (most commonly molecular hydrogen, ...
s of roughly and in diameter. Over millions of years, giant molecular clouds are prone to
collapse Collapse or its variants may refer to: Concepts * Collapse (structural) * Collapse (topology), a mathematical concept * Collapsing manifold * Collapse, the action of collapsing or telescoping objects * Collapsing user interface elements ** ...
and fragmentation. These fragments then form small, dense cores, which in turn collapse into stars. The cores range in mass from a fraction to several times that of the Sun and are called protostellar (protosolar) nebulae. They possess diameters of and a
particle number density The particle number (or number of particles) of a thermodynamic system, conventionally indicated with the letter ''N'', is the number of constituent particles in that system. The particle number is a fundamental parameter in thermodynamics which is ...
of roughly . Compare it with the particle number density of the air at the sea level—. The initial collapse of a solar-mass protostellar nebula takes around 100,000 years. Every nebula begins with a certain amount of
angular momentum In physics, angular momentum (rarely, moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a conserved quantity—the total angular momentum of a closed syst ...
. Gas in the central part of the nebula, with relatively low angular momentum, undergoes fast compression and forms a hot
hydrostatic Fluid statics or hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies the condition of the equilibrium of a floating body and submerged body "fluids at hydrostatic equilibrium and the pressure in a fluid, or exerted by a fluid, on an imme ...
(non-contracting) core containing a small fraction of the mass of the original nebula. This core forms the seed of what will become a star. As the collapse continues, conservation of angular momentum dictates that the rotation of the infalling envelope accelerates, which eventually forms a disk. As the infall of material from the disk continues, the envelope eventually becomes thin and transparent and the
young stellar object Young stellar object (YSO) denotes a star in its early stage of evolution. This class consists of two groups of objects: protostars and pre-main-sequence stars. Classification by spectral energy distribution A star forms by accumulation of mate ...
(YSO) becomes observable, initially in
far-infrared Far infrared (FIR) is a region in the infrared spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. Far infrared is often defined as any radiation with a wavelength of 15 micrometers (μm) to 1 mm (corresponding to a range of about 20  THz to ...
light and later in the visible. Around this time the protostar begins to
fuse Fuse or FUSE may refer to: Devices * Fuse (electrical), a device used in electrical systems to protect against excessive current ** Fuse (automotive), a class of fuses for vehicles * Fuse (hydraulic), a device used in hydraulic systems to protect ...
deuterium Deuterium (or hydrogen-2, symbol or deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two Stable isotope ratio, stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being Hydrogen atom, protium, or hydrogen-1). The atomic nucleus, nucleus of a deuterium ato ...
. If the protostar is sufficiently massive (above ), hydrogen fusion follows. Otherwise, if its mass is too low, the object becomes a
brown dwarf Brown dwarfs (also called failed stars) are substellar objects that are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen ( 1H) into helium in their cores, unlike a main-sequence star. Instead, they have a mass between the most ...
. This birth of a new star occurs approximately 100,000 years after the collapse begins. Objects at this stage are known as Class I protostars, which are also called young
T Tauri star T Tauri stars (TTS) are a class of variable stars that are less than about ten million years old. This class is named after the prototype, T Tauri, a young star in the Taurus star-forming region. They are found near molecular clouds and iden ...
s, evolved protostars, or young stellar objects. By this time, the forming star has already accreted much of its mass; the total mass of the disk and remaining envelope does not exceed 10–20% of the mass of the central YSO. At the next stage, the envelope completely disappears, having been gathered up by the disk, and the protostar becomes a classical T Tauri star. The latter have accretion disks and continue to accrete hot gas, which manifests itself by strong emission lines in their spectrum. The former do not possess accretion disks. Classical T Tauri stars evolve into weakly lined T Tauri stars. This happens after about 1 million years. The mass of the disk around a classical T Tauri star is about 1–3% of the stellar mass, and it is accreted at a rate of 10−7 to per year. A pair of bipolar jets is usually present as well. The accretion explains all peculiar properties of classical T Tauri stars: strong
flux Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications to physics. For transport ph ...
in the
emission line A spectral line is a dark or bright line in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum, resulting from emission or absorption of light in a narrow frequency range, compared with the nearby frequencies. Spectral lines are often used to iden ...
s (up to 100% of the intrinsic
luminosity Luminosity is an absolute measure of radiated electromagnetic power (light), the radiant power emitted by a light-emitting object over time. In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of electromagnetic energy emitted per unit of time by a st ...
of the star),
magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particle ...
activity, photometric variability and jets. The emission lines actually form as the accreted gas hits the "surface" of the star, which happens around its magnetic poles. The jets are byproducts of accretion: they carry away excessive angular momentum. The classical T Tauri stage lasts about 10 million years (there are only a few examples of so-called
Peter Pan disk A Peter Pan disk is a circumstellar disk around a star or brown dwarf that appears to have retained enough gas to form a gas giant planet for much longer than the typically assumed gas dispersal timescale of approximately 5 million years. Several ...
s, where the accretion continues to persist for much longer periods, sometimes lasting for more than 40 million years). The disk eventually disappears due to accretion onto the central star, planet formation, ejection by jets, and
photoevaporation Photoevaporation denotes the process where energetic radiation ionises gas and causes it to disperse away from the ionising source. This typically refers to an astrophysical context where ultraviolet radiation from hot stars acts on clouds of mat ...
by
ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...
radiation from the central star and nearby stars. As a result, the young star becomes a weakly lined T Tauri star, which, over hundreds of millions of years, evolves into an ordinary Sun-like star, dependent on its initial mass.


Accretion of planets

Self-accretion of
cosmic dust Cosmic dust, also called extraterrestrial dust, star dust or space dust, is dust which exists in outer space, or has fallen on Earth. Most cosmic dust particles measure between a few molecules and 0.1 mm (100 micrometers). Larger particles are c ...
accelerates the growth of the particles into boulder-sized
planetesimal Planetesimals are solid objects thought to exist in protoplanetary disks and debris disks. Per the Chamberlin–Moulton planetesimal hypothesis, they are believed to form out of cosmic dust grains. Believed to have formed in the Solar System a ...
s. The more massive planetesimals accrete some smaller ones, while others shatter in collisions. Accretion disks are common around smaller stars, stellar remnants in a
close binary A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...
, or
black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...
s surrounded by material (such as those at the centers of
galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...
). Some dynamics in the disk, such as
dynamical friction In astrophysics, dynamical friction or Chandrasekhar friction, sometimes called ''gravitational drag'', is loss of momentum and kinetic energy of moving bodies through gravitational interactions with surrounding matter in space. It was first d ...
, are necessary to allow orbiting gas to lose
angular momentum In physics, angular momentum (rarely, moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a conserved quantity—the total angular momentum of a closed syst ...
and fall onto the central massive object. Occasionally, this can result in stellar surface fusion (see
Bondi accretion In astrophysics, the Bondi accretion (also called Bondi–Hoyle–Lyttleton accretion), named after Hermann Bondi, is spherical accretion onto a compact object traveling through the interstellar medium. It is generally used in the context of neutro ...
). In the formation of terrestrial planets or
planetary core A planetary core consists of the innermost layers of a planet. Cores may be entirely solid or entirely liquid, or a mixture of solid and liquid layers as is the case in the Earth. In the Solar System, core sizes range from about 20% (the Moon ...
s, several stages can be considered. First, when gas and dust grains collide, they agglomerate by microphysical processes like
van der Waals force In molecular physics, the van der Waals force is a distance-dependent interaction between atoms or molecules. Unlike ionic or covalent bonds, these attractions do not result from a chemical electronic bond; they are comparatively weak and th ...
s and electromagnetic forces, forming micrometer-sized particles; during this stage, accumulation mechanisms are largely non-gravitational in nature. However, planetesimal formation in the centimeter-to-meter range is not well understood, and no convincing explanation is offered as to why such grains would accumulate rather than simply rebound. In particular, it is still not clear how these objects grow to become sized planetesimals; this problem is known as the "meter size barrier": As dust particles grow by coagulation, they acquire increasingly large relative velocities with respect to other particles in their vicinity, as well as a systematic inward drift velocity, that leads to destructive collisions, and thereby limit the growth of the aggregates to some maximum size. Ward (1996) suggests that when slow moving grains collide, the very low, yet non-zero, gravity of colliding grains impedes their escape. It is also thought that grain fragmentation plays an important role replenishing small grains and keeping the disk thick, but also in maintaining a relatively high abundance of solids of all sizes. A number of mechanisms have been proposed for crossing the 'meter-sized' barrier. Local concentrations of pebbles may form, which then gravitationally collapse into planetesimals the size of large asteroids. These concentrations can occur passively due to the structure of the gas disk, for example, between eddies, at pressure bumps, at the edge of a gap created by a giant planet, or at the boundaries of turbulent regions of the disk. Or, the particles may take an active role in their concentration via a feedback mechanism referred to as a
streaming instability In planetary science a streaming instability is a hypothetical mechanism for the formation of planetesimals in which the drag felt by solid particles orbiting in a gas disk leads to their spontaneous concentration into clumps which can gravitational ...
. In a streaming instability the interaction between the solids and the gas in the protoplanetary disk results in the growth of local concentrations, as new particles accumulate in the wake of small concentrations, causing them to grow into massive filaments. Alternatively, if the grains that form due to the agglomeration of dust are highly porous their growth may continue until they become large enough to collapse due to their own gravity. The low density of these objects allows them to remain strongly coupled with the gas, thereby avoiding high velocity collisions which could result in their erosion or fragmentation. Grains eventually stick together to form mountain-size (or larger) bodies called planetesimals. Collisions and gravitational interactions between planetesimals combine to produce Moon-size planetary embryos (
protoplanet A protoplanet is a large planetary embryo that originated within a protoplanetary disc and has undergone internal melting to produce a differentiated interior. Protoplanets are thought to form out of kilometer-sized planetesimals that gravitation ...
s) over roughly 0.1–1 million years. Finally, the planetary embryos collide to form planets over 10–100 million years. The planetesimals are massive enough that mutual gravitational interactions are significant enough to be taken into account when computing their evolution. Growth is aided by orbital decay of smaller bodies due to gas drag, which prevents them from being stranded between orbits of the embryos. Further collisions and accumulation lead to terrestrial planets or the core of giant planets. If the planetesimals formed via the gravitational collapse of local concentrations of pebbles, their growth into planetary embryos and the cores of giant planets is dominated by the further accretions of pebbles.
Pebble accretion Pebble accretion is the accumulation of particles, ranging from centimeters up to meters in diameter, into planetesimals in a protoplanetary disk that is enhanced by aerodynamic drag from the gas present in the disk. This drag reduces the relative ...
is aided by the gas drag felt by objects as they accelerate toward a massive body. Gas drag slows the pebbles below the escape velocity of the massive body causing them to spiral toward and to be accreted by it. Pebble accretion may accelerate the formation of planets by a factor of 1000 compared to the accretion of planetesimals, allowing giant planets to form before the dissipation of the gas disk. Yet, core growth via pebble accretion appears incompatible with the final masses and compositions of
Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars (mythology), Mars), grandfather ...
and
Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...
. The formation of
terrestrial planet A terrestrial planet, telluric planet, or rocky planet, is a planet that is composed primarily of silicate rocks or metals. Within the Solar System, the terrestrial planets accepted by the IAU are the inner planets closest to the Sun: Mercury, Ve ...
s differs from that of giant gas planets, also called
Jovian planet The giant planets constitute a diverse type of planet much larger than Earth. They are usually primarily composed of low-boiling-point materials (volatiles), rather than rock or other solid matter, but massive solid planets can also exist. Ther ...
s. The particles that make up the terrestrial planets are made from metal and rock that condensed in the inner
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
. However, Jovian planets began as large, icy planetesimals, which then captured hydrogen and helium gas from the
solar nebula The formation of the Solar System began about 4.6 billion years ago with the gravitational collapse of a small part of a giant molecular cloud. Most of the collapsing mass collected in the center, forming the Sun, while the rest flattened into a ...
. Differentiation between these two classes of planetesimals arise due to the
frost line The frost line—also known as frost depth or freezing depth—is most commonly the depth to which the groundwater in soil is expected to freeze. The frost depth depends on the climatic conditions of an area, the heat transfer properties of the s ...
of the solar nebula.


Accretion of asteroids

Meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...
s contain a record of accretion and impacts during all stages of
asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
origin and evolution; however, the mechanism of asteroid accretion and growth is not well understood. Evidence suggests the main growth of asteroids can result from gas-assisted accretion of
chondrule A chondrule (from Ancient Greek χόνδρος ''chondros'', grain) is a round grain found in a chondrite. Chondrules form as molten or partially molten droplets in space before being accreted to their parent asteroids. Because chondrites repres ...
s, which are millimeter-sized spherules that form as molten (or partially molten) droplets in space before being accreted to their parent asteroids. In the inner Solar System, chondrules appear to have been crucial for initiating accretion. The tiny mass of asteroids may be partly due to inefficient chondrule formation beyond 2 AU, or less-efficient delivery of chondrules from near the protostar. Also, impacts controlled the formation and destruction of asteroids, and are thought to be a major factor in their geological evolution. Chondrules, metal grains, and other components likely formed in the
solar nebula The formation of the Solar System began about 4.6 billion years ago with the gravitational collapse of a small part of a giant molecular cloud. Most of the collapsing mass collected in the center, forming the Sun, while the rest flattened into a ...
. These accreted together to form parent asteroids. Some of these bodies subsequently melted, forming metallic cores and
olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle, it is a common mineral in Earth's subsurface, but weathers quickl ...
-rich mantles; others were aqueously altered. After the asteroids had cooled, they were eroded by impacts for 4.5 billion years, or disrupted. For accretion to occur, impact velocities must be less than about twice the escape velocity, which is about for a radius asteroid. Simple models for accretion in the
asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...
generally assume micrometer-sized dust grains sticking together and settling to the midplane of the nebula to form a dense layer of dust, which, because of gravitational forces, was converted into a disk of kilometer-sized planetesimals. But, several arguments suggest that asteroids may not have accreted this way.


Accretion of comets

Comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
s, or their precursors, formed in the outer Solar System, possibly millions of years before planet formation. How and when comets formed is debated, with distinct implications for Solar System formation, dynamics, and geology. Three-dimensional computer simulations indicate the major structural features observed on
cometary nuclei The nucleus is the solid, central part of a comet, once termed a ''dirty snowball'' or an ''icy dirtball''. A cometary nucleus is composed of rock, dust, and frozen gases. When heated by the Sun, the gases sublime and produce an atmosphere sur ...
can be explained by pairwise low velocity accretion of weak cometesimals. The currently favored formation mechanism is that of the
nebular hypothesis The nebular hypothesis is the most widely accepted model in the field of cosmogony to explain the formation and evolution of the Solar System (as well as other planetary systems). It suggests the Solar System is formed from gas and dust orbitin ...
, which states that comets are probably a remnant of the original planetesimal "building blocks" from which the planets grew. Astronomers think that comets originate in both the
Oort cloud The Oort cloud (), sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, first described in 1950 by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, is a theoretical concept of a cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals proposed to surround the Sun at distances ranging from 2 ...
and the
scattered disk The scattered disc (or scattered disk) is a distant circumstellar disc in the Solar System that is sparsely populated by icy small solar system bodies, which are a subset of the broader family of trans-Neptunian objects. The scattered-disc objec ...
. The scattered disk was created when
Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...
migrated outward into the proto-Kuiper belt, which at the time was much closer to the Sun, and left in its wake a population of dynamically stable objects that could never be affected by its orbit (the
Kuiper belt The Kuiper belt () is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times ...
proper), and a population whose perihelia are close enough that Neptune can still disturb them as it travels around the Sun (the scattered disk). Because the scattered disk is dynamically active and the Kuiper belt relatively dynamically stable, the scattered disk is now seen as the most likely point of origin for periodic comets. The classic Oort cloud theory states that the Oort cloud, a sphere measuring about in radius, formed at the same time as the solar nebula and occasionally releases comets into the inner Solar System as a giant planet or star passes nearby and causes gravitational disruptions. Examples of such comet clouds may already have been seen in the
Helix Nebula The Helix Nebula (also known as NGC 7293 or Caldwell 63) is a planetary nebula (PN) located in the constellation Aquarius. Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding, probably before 1824, this object is one of the closest of all the bright planetary neb ...
. The ''Rosetta'' mission to comet
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (abbreviated as 67P or 67P/C–G) is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the Kuiper belt, with a current orbital period of 6.45 years, a rotation period of approximately 12.4 hours and a maximum velocity of . Chu ...
determined in 2015 that when Sun's heat penetrates the surface, it triggers evaporation (sublimation) of buried ice. While some of the resulting water vapour may escape from the nucleus, 80% of it recondenses in layers beneath the surface. This observation implies that the thin ice-rich layers exposed close to the surface may be a consequence of cometary activity and evolution, and that global layering does not necessarily occur early in the comet's formation history. While most scientists thought that all the evidence indicated that the structure of nuclei of comets is processed
rubble pile In astronomy, a rubble pile is a celestial body that is not a monolith, consisting instead of numerous pieces of rock that have coalesced under the influence of gravity. Rubble piles have low density because there are large cavities between the ...
s of smaller ice planetesimals of a previous generation, the ''Rosetta'' mission dispelled the idea that comets are "rubble piles" of disparate material.


See also

* * * * * * * * Quasi-star * * *


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Accretion (Astrophysics) Astrophysics Celestial mechanics Solar System dynamic theories