ASTR BC 1753x Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud, Ecliptic

• School: Barnard College
• Department: Physics and Astronomy
• Course: ASTR BC 1753x
• Professor: Mary Putman, David Kipping

Document Summary

After particles condense, they accrete into larger particles an eventually become planetesimals. The things sticking together are the embryos of planets, and they get bigger and bigger. Combine near the sun to form rocky planets. Combine beyond the frost line to form icy planetesimals, which capture h/he far from the sun to form gas planets. Giant planets would have formed closer to the sun. Leftover rocky planetesimals which did not accrete onto a planet are the present-day asteroids. Most inhabit the asteroid belt between mars and jupiter. Jupiter"s gravity prevented a planet from forming there. If between the giant planets, either captures or gravitationally flung into the oort cloud. Those beyond neptune"s orbit remained in the ecliptic plane in what we call the kuiper belt. Not all objects were moving together and there were many leftover planetesimals at early times. During this period, it was impossible for life to form because it would have been impacted and wiped out.