Probing the Protosolar Disk Using Dust Filtering at Gaps in the Early Solar System

Abstract

Abstract Jupiter and Saturn formed early, before the gas disk dispersed. The presence of gap-opening planets affects the dynamics of the gas and embedded solids and halts the inward drift of grains above a certain size. A drift barrier can explain the absence of calcium–aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) in chondrites originating from parent bodies that accreted in the inner solar system. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, we use a μ-X-ray-fluorescence scanner to search for large CAIs and a scanning electron microscope to search for small CAIs in the ordinary chondrite NWA 5697. We carry out long-term, two-dimensional simulations including gas, dust, and planets to characterize the transport of grains within the viscous α-disk framework exploring the scenarios of a stand-alone Jupiter, Jupiter and Saturn in situ, or Jupiter and Saturn in a 3:2 resonance. In each case, we find a critical grain size above which drift is halted as a function of the physical conditions in the disk. From the laboratory search we find four CAIs with a largest size of ≈200 μm. Combining models and data, we provide an estimate for the upper limit of the α-viscosity and the surface density at the location of Jupiter, using reasonable assumptions about the stellar accretion rate during inward transport of CAIs, and assuming angular momentum transport to happen exclusively through viscous effects. Moreover, we find that the compound gap structure in the presence of Saturn in a 3:2 resonance favors inward transport of grains larger than CAIs currently detected in ordinary chondrites.