Can gas giant planets form through pebble accretion?
Giant planets take too long to form from large planetesimals. Does including much smaller pebbles fix this problem?
A Ring of Ice and Glows (around Fomalhaut)
ALMA has taken a brand-new image of Fomalhaut’s famous debris disk. What can we learn from it?
Watermelon Dust is the Best Dust: Forming Planetesimals Near the Snow Line
Beyond the snow line, water in a protoplanetary disk condenses into ice. In simple models, this is supposed to make it possible for planetesimals and in turn, giant planets to form. Can that storyline hold up in the more detailed model from today’s paper?
Will the real Protoplanetary Disk Mass please stand up?
My name is Protoplanetary Disk Mass. I am important for determining what types of planets can form, where they can form, and how quickly they can form. Signed Protoplanetary Disk Mass.
Breaking Planet Chains and Cracking the Kepler Dichotomy
Why can’t more exoplanet systems be like TRAPPIST-1? Why do so many Kepler systems have only one transiting planet? Today’s paper tries to answer both questions.