Write For Us

Debris Disk Simulations Generate Spirals, Rings and Arcs

E-Commerce Solutions SEO Solutions Marketing Solutions
116 Views

  • Thanks! Share it with your friends!

    You disliked this video. Thanks for the feedback!

Danielle
Published
When exoplanet scientists first spotted patterns in disks of dust and gas around young stars, they thought newly formed planets might be the cause. But a recent NASA study cautions that there may be another explanation: one that doesn't involve planets at all.
An alternative explanation suggests the dust and gas in the disk can form the patterns themselves when they interact with starlight.
When high-energy UV starlight hits dust grains, it strips away electrons. Those electrons collide with and heat nearby gas. As the gas warms, its pressure increases and it traps more dust, which in turn heats more gas. The resulting cycle, called the photoelectric instability (PeI), can work in tandem with other forces to create some of the features astronomers have previously associated with planets in debris disks.

A 2013 study suggested PeI could explain the narrow rings seen in some disks. The model also predicted that some disks would have arcs, or incomplete rings, which weren't directly observed in a disk until 2016.
The new simulation includes an additional new factor: radiation pressure, a force caused by starlight striking dust grains.
Light exerts a minute physical force on everything it encounters. This radiation pressure propels solar sails and helps direct comet tails so they always point away from the Sun. The same force can push dust into highly eccentric orbits, and even blow some of the smaller grains out of the disk entirely.
The new research modeled how radiation pressure and PeI work together to affect the movement of dust and gas, and also found that the two forces manifest different patterns depending on the physical properties of the dust and gas.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessenger
Music: "Hyperborea" from Killer Tracks.
This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at:
If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel:
Or subscribe to NASA’s Goddard Shorts HD Podcast:
Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
· Facebook:
· Twitter
· Flickr
· Instagram
· Google+
Category
Documentary
Tags
NASA
Be the first to comment