the asteroid belt is the region of the solar system between mars and jupiter.
region of the solar system between mars and jupiter?
the asteroid belt
the terrestrial planets may be much smaller than the giant planets due to the sublimation of water ice as pebbles crossed the ice line. the radial drift of pebbles causes them to cross the ice line where water ice sublimates releasing silicate grains. the silicate grains are less sticky than icy grains resulting in bouncing, or fragmentation during collisions and the formation of smaller pebbles. these smaller pebbles are dispersed into a thicker disk by the turbulence in the gas disk. the mass flow of solids drifting through the terrestrial region is also reduced by half by the loss of water ice. in combination these two factors significantly reduce the rate at which mass is accreted by planetesimals in the inner solar system relative to the outer solar system. as a result, lunar mass planetary embryos in the inner solar system are able to grow only to around mars-mass, whereas in the outer solar system they are able to grow to more than 10x earth-mass forming the cores of giant planets. beginning instead with planetesimals formed via streaming instabilities yields similar results in the inner solar system. in the asteroid belt the largest planetesimals grow into mars-massed embryos. these embryos stir the smaller planetesimals, increasing their inclinations, causing them to leave the pebble disk. the growth of these smaller planetesimals is stalled at this point, freezing their size distribution near that of the current asteroid belt. the variation of accretion efficiency with pebble size during this process results in the size sorting of the chondrules observed in the primitive meteorites. in the terrestrial zone pebble accretion plays a smaller role. here growth is due to a mix of pebble and planetesimal accretion until an oligarchical configuration of isolate lunar-massed embryos forms. continued growth due to the accretion of inward drifting chondrules increases the mass of these embryos until their orbits are destabilized, leading to giant impacts between the embryos and the formation of mars-sized embryos. the cutoff of the inward drift of icy pebbles by the formation of jupiter before the ice line moved into the terrestrial region would limit the water fraction of the planets formed from these embryos.
pebble accretion
bullet::::- hip 11915 (a solar analog whose planetary system contains a jupiter analog)









































bullet::::- lists of geological features of the solar system









































bullet::::- list of gravitationally rounded objects of the solar system









































bullet::::- list of solar system extremes









































bullet::::- planetary mnemonic









































bullet::::- solar system in fiction









































section::::external links.









































bullet::::- dmoz page for solar system









































bullet::::- origin of the solar system (outline)









































bullet::::- a cosmic history of the solar system









































bullet::::- a tediously accurate map of the solar system (web based scroll map scaled to the moon being 1 pixel)









































bullet::::- nasa/jpl solar system main page









































bullet::::- nasa's solar system simulator
outline of the solar system