Emergence of Protoplanetary Disks and Successive Formation of Gaseous Planets by Gravitational Instability

• Published in: Astrophysical journal. Letters Vol. 718; no. 2; pp. L58 - L62
• Main Authors: Inutsuka, Shu-ichiro, Machida, Masahiro N, Matsumoto, Tomoaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IOP Publishing 01.08.2010
• Subjects: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; FLUID MECHANICS; GRAVITATIONAL INSTABILITY; HYDRODYNAMICS; INSTABILITY; MAGNETIC DISKS; MAGNETIC STORAGE DEVICES; MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS; MASS; MECHANICS; MEMORY DEVICES; PLANETS; PLASMA INSTABILITY; PROTOPLANETS; PROTOSTARS; SIMULATION; STARS

We use resistive magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations with the nested grid technique to study the formation of protoplanetary disks around protostars from molecular cloud cores that provide the realistic environments for planet formation. We find that gaseous planetary-mass objects are formed in...