Researchers from Japan found an explanation of the absence of the planets themselves in the rings of protoplanetic disks. The modeling performed on the supercomputer showed that the planets can leave the protoplanetic disk immediately after their formation. The article dedicated to this riddle of scientists has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Young stars are more often surrounded by gas and dust with protoplanetic discs. The observations are shown that they have many options for rings of different density, in which “gaps” are often marked. You can explain the presence of such structures with gravitational effects from the planets that are generated in the discs, but the observations have not yet found them next to the disks.
Astrophysician team is modeled at the Supercomputer of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Aterii II, when the planet “migrates” from the place of its initial appearance. It turned out that with a low viscosity of the disk, the ring formed at the site of the formation of the planet may not follow it, but to stay in its place.
Research calculations showed that this process has three phases. On the first planet shifted closer to the star, and its ring remains in place. During the second initial ring gradually deformed, and the new orbit of the planet begins to form a new one. In the third phase, the initial ring disappears. Selected phases are well consistent with observation data, astrophysics are noted.