title: Growth and form of planetary seedlings: results from a microgravity aggregation experiment.
abstract: The outcome of the first stage of planetary formation, which is characterized by ballistic agglomeration of preplanetary dust grains due to Brownian motion in the free molecular flow regime of the solar nebula, is still somewhat speculative. We performed a microgravity experiment flown onboard the space shuttle in which we simulated, for the first time, the onset of free preplanetary dust accumulation and revealed the structures and growth rates of the first dust agglomerates in the young solar system. We find that a thermally aggregating swarm of dust particles evolves very rapidly and forms unexpected open-structured agglomerates.
authors.affiliation: Astrophysical Institute and University Observatory, University of Jena, Schillergässchen 2-3, 07745 Jena, Germany. blum@astro.uni-jena.de
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blum
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wurm
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kempf
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Poppe
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Klahr
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kozasa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rott
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Henning
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dorschner
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schräpler
authors.forename: H U
authors.initials: HU
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Markiewicz
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Gustafson
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giovane
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Neuhaus
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fechtig
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grün
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Feuerbacher
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kochan
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ratke
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: El Goresy
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morfill
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Weidenschilling
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schwehm
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Metzler
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Ip
mesh_terms: D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016083:Planets; D014893:Weightlessness