Publication Date:
2019-07-19
Description:
Debris disks around other stars, like the disks around Fomalhaut, Vega, and Epsilon Eridani, are often described as more massive versions of the Kuiper Belt. But for a long time, it's been hard to test this notion, because grain-grain collisions limit the grain lifetimes and we lacked the tools to model the effects of these collisions on the appearance of the disks. I'll describe a new breakthrough that has allowed us to make 3-D models of grain-grain collisions in debris disks for the first time, and I'll show the latest supercomputer simulations of these systems, illustrating how planets and collisions together sculpt the TNO dust.
Keywords:
Astronomy
Type:
Dynamical and Physical Properties of Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO) 2010; Jun 27, 2010 - Jul 01, 2010; Philadelphia, PA; United States
Format:
text