NOVA: Gaseous Discs Tilt & Shrink in Virtual Wind Tunnel

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NOVA: Gaseous Discs Tilt & Shrink in Virtual Wind Tunnel

Post by bystander » Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:06 pm

Astronomers Let Gas Discs Tilt and Shrink in Virtual Wind Tunnel
Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) | 2017 Aug 28
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A team of Dutch astronomers ... has managed to tilt and shrink gaseous disks, in which planets form, in a virtual wind tunnel. The research helps for example in finding an explanation for the tilted planetary orbits in our own solar system. ...

A newborn star is surrounded by a disk of gas and dust out of which planets form. In addition, there is a lot of remaining gas in star forming areas, which was not used to form stars (and their disks). Dutch astronomers presume that the gaseous disk from which our own planet system originated was tilted under the influence of its movement through gas.

To investigate the hypothesis of the tilting gaseous disks, Dutch astronomers placed a star with a gaseous disk in a virtual wind tunnel and tested several different conditions. A real wind tunnel was not an option because that wind tunnel should be larger than a complete solar system and because the processes last for hundreds of thousands of years. ...

Changes in orientation and shape of protoplanetary discs moving through an ambient medium - T.P.G. Wijnen et al Disc truncation in embedded star clusters: Dynamical encounters versus face-on accretion - T.P.G. Wijnen et al
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