On the Location of the Snow Line in a Protoplanetary Disk

By M. Lecar, M. Podolak, D. Sasselov, E. C. H. CfA, T. Univ., Uc Berkeley. 2006

183 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In a protoplanetary disk, the inner edge of the region where the temperature falls below the condensation temperature of water is referred to as the snow line. Outside the snow line, water ice increases the surface density of solids by a factor of 4. The mass of the fastest growing planetesimal (the isolation mass) scales as the surface density to the 3/2 power. It is thought that ice-enhanced surface densities are required to make the cores of the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) before the disk gas dissipates. Observations of our solar system's asteroid belt suggest that the snow line occurred near 2.7 AU. In this paper we revisit the theoretical determination of the snow line. In a minimum-mass disk characterized by conventional opacities and a mass accretion rate of 10-8 M☉ yr-1, the snow line lies at 1.6-1.8 AU, just past the orbit of Mars. The minimum-mass disk, with a mass of 0.02 M☉, has a lifetime of 2 million years with the assumed accretion rate. Moving the snow line past 2.7 AU requires that we increase the disk opacity, accretion rate, and/or disk mass by factors ranging up to an order of magnitude above our assumed baseline values.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/32a754d0b2e8f9209eb82e4228d61725169cf92e

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Citations in the corpus

The habitability of Proxima Centauri b. I. Irradiation, rotation and volatile inventory from formation to the present (2016, background): “The snow line therefore moves inward in time, (e.g., Lecar et al. 2006; Kennedy & Kenyon 2008; Podolak 2010; Martin & Livio 2012).”
THE STICKINESS OF MICROMETER-SIZED WATER-ICE PARTICLES (2014, background): “As all astrophysically relevant water-ice temperatures in molecular clouds and protoplanetary disks are well below 210 K (Bergin & Tafalla 2007; Lecar et al. 2006), laboratory experiments on the collision and sticking behavior of water-ice particles should be done at temperatures below 210 K to…”
The chemical history of molecules in circumstellar disks - I. Ices (2009, methodology): “Specifically, models of the minimum-mass solar nebula (MMSN) predict a dust temperature of∼40 K at 30 AU (Lecar et al. 2006).”
Origin of water in the inner Solar System: Planetesimals scattered inward during Jupiter and Saturn's rapid gas accretion (2017, background): “However, the snow line is not fixed but moves inward in time as the disk cools (Lecar et al., 2006; Kennedy and Kenyon, 2008; Martin and Livio, 2012).”
MAKE SUPER-EARTHS, NOT JUPITERS: ACCRETING NEBULAR GAS ONTO SOLID CORES AT 0.1 AU AND BEYOND (2014, background): “Furthermore, the disk’s solid surface density is enhanced outside the “ice line” (water condensation front) at ∼2–3 AU (Lecar et al. 2006; see also Öberg et al. 2011).”
THE EFFECTS OF SNOWLINES ON C/O IN PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES (2011, background): “Finally the disk temperature profile is not static, but rather depends on both the evolving luminosity of the accreting star and the disk opacity (Lecar et al. 2006; Makalkin & Dorofeeva 2009).”
Toward a Deterministic Model of Planetary Formation. IV. Effects of Type I Migration (2008, background): “The magnitude of aice may be modified by the local viscous dissipation (Lecar et al. 2006) and stellar irradiation (Chiang & Goldreich 1997; Garaud&Lin 2007).”
TOWARD A DETERMINISTIC MODEL OF PLANETARY FORMATION. VI. DYNAMICAL INTERACTION AND COAGULATION OF MULTIPLE ROCKY EMBRYOS AND SUPER-EARTH SYSTEMS AROUND SOLAR-TYPE STARS (2010, background): “(3) The magnitude of aice may be modified by the local viscous dissipation (Lecar et al. 2006) and stellar irradiation (Chiang & Goldreich 1997; Garaud & Lin 2007).”
A Low-Mass Planet with a Possible Sub-Stellar-Mass Host in Microlensing Event MOA-2007-BLG-192 (2008, background): “In the context of planet formation theory (Ida & Lin 2004; Lecar et al. 2006; Kennedy et al. 2006; Kennedy & Kenyon 2008), the “snow-line” is the region in the proto-planetary disk where it is just cold enough for water-ice to form.”
Microlensing Surveys for Exoplanets (2012, background): “Predicting the location of the snow line in a protoplanetary disk and, in particular, how this location should scale with host star mass, is difficult [see Lecar et al. (2006); Kennedy, Kenyon & Bromley (2007); and Kennedy & Kenyon (2008) for discussions].”
Ice Condensation as a Planet Formation Mechanism (2013, background): “The radial water ice line, or condensation front, is found at r ≈ 3 AU around a solar type star (Lecar et al., 2006).”
Stable-isotopic anomalies and the accretionary assemblage of the Earth and Mars: A subordinate role for carbonaceous chondrites (2011, background): “In the context of the early solar system, one obvious and fundamental potential divergence between two modes of origin is spatial, between the inner solar system (sunward relative to Jupiter) and the outer solar system.”
The minimum-mass extrasolar nebula: in situ formation of close-in super-Earths (2012, background): “If the accretional energy is radiated vertically, the factor by which the midplane temperature is boosted scales as τ1/4, where τ is the Rosseland mean optical depth across the vertical extent of the disk (e.g., Lecar et al. 2006, their equations 1 and 2).”
Planet Formation around Stars of Various Masses: The Snow Line and the Frequency of Giant Planets (2007, background): “As we show in §5, ∼1AU differences between our model and more detailed treatments (e.g. Sasselov & Lecar 2000; Lecar et al. 2006) do not affect our conclusions.”
Populating the asteroid belt from two parent source regions due to the migration of giant planets—“The Grand Tack” (2012, background): “5 AU due to estimates of the snow line location (Ciesla and Cuzzi 2006; Lecar et al. 2006; Garaud and Lin 2007).”
H2O and OH Gas in the Terrestrial Planet-forming Zones of Protoplanetary Disks (2008, background): “The snow line for the early solar system is estimated to be near 3 AU, but would be further out for these high accretion rate stars (Lecar et al. 2006).”
Transience of Hot Dust around Sun-like Stars (2006, background): “…that of the protosolar nebula, as well as on the structure and evolution of its planetary system, evidence for water ice in the dust spectrum indicates that the parent body formed beyond the ice-line in this system (Lisse et al. 2006), i.e., beyond 2−5.5 AU (Lecar et al. 2006; Alibert et al. 2006).”