Formation of the Giant Planets

Abstract

The structure of a gaseous envelope surrounding a icy/rocky core is studied in consideration of radiative transfer. It is found that when the core grows beyond a critical core mass, the envelope cannot be in equilibrium and collapses onto the core to form a proto-giant planet. The results are as follows (for details, see Mizuno 1980).1) The critical core mass is smaller than that estimated by Perri and Cameron (1974) and Mizuno, Nakazawa and Hayashi (1978). 2) When the grain opacity in the envelope varies from 0 to 1 cm2/g, the critical core mass changes from ~2 to ~12 Earth's masses. 3) The critical core mass is independent of the region in the solar nebula.These are due to the existence of the radiative region in the envelope.