What badminton can teach us about planetary formation

Dust grains in protoplanetary disks align via the same aerodynamics as the sport.

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[JohnDeL]

I wonder how the magnitude of this effect compares with that of the Yarkovsky effect and the Poynting-Roberston effect?

This will certainly have some implications for how quickly dust is cleared and for how fast clumping takes place. Not sure it will change the overall view, though.

 

[Defenestrar]

Venus was clearly put in orbit with an illegal spin serve.

 

[RickRoyLeonPrisZhoraRacha]

Well, saying we are made of dust is... true.

 

[CrystalCowboy]

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What do planet formation and badminton have in common?​

It takes at least two rackets and a death wish.

 

[AreWeThereYeti]

Wouldn't the gas orbit at about the same speed as the grains? I mean, the grains formed from the gas, and angular momentum is conserved.

 

[Albino_Boo]

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It takes at least two rackets and a death wish.

I'm desperately trying not make shuttlecock joke

 

[HiggsForce]

Wouldn't the gas orbit at about the same speed as the grains? I mean, the grains formed from the gas, and angular momentum is conserved.

They discuss that as well as various scenarios that would cause a bit of relative motion between the gas and dust (such as an accreting gas disk) in section 4 of the paper.

 

[taxythingy]

Wouldn't the gas orbit at about the same speed as the grains? I mean, the grains formed from the gas, and angular momentum is conserved.

At first glance, yes. However gas is very light and is substantially affected by the solar wind and by pressure gradients, and is not fully orbital (Keplerian). So the paths of dust grains and gas molecules intersect, which creates head-, cross- and potentially tailwinds.

 

[Verbum Bummer]

As granular as the details are, the dust alignment is a small but key step in a grand journey of particle-to-planet progression. The nitty-gritty of a particle’s conduct will determine its fate for millions of years—perhaps the primordial seed will hoover up hydrogen and helium to become a gas giant or amass dust to transform into a terrestrial world like Earth. It all starts with it flailing or keeping steady amid a sea of other specks.

That closing paragraph wrapped in timeless connection sent me into a period of intro-speck-tion. Thank you, Shi En Kim.