SO Colloquium – The long and winding road from planetesimals to comets

One of the most promising models of planetesimal formation in the young Solar System encompasses two major stages: (i) the collisional growth of dust grains into mm- to cm-sized dust/ice aggregates, often termed «pebbles», followed by (ii) pebble-concentration processes that lead to the gentle self-gravitational collapse of the pebble clouds. The subsequent evolution of these planetesimals comprises heating by short- and long-lived radiogenic nuclei as well as mutual collisions so that the contemporary survivors of all these phases might have somewhat different internal structures than the primitive planetesimals in the early stages of the Solar System.

I will use available models of the makeup of evolved planetesimals and compare them with the properties of cometary nuclei.

Fecha y lugar: 10/02/2026 – 12:30 | Salón de Actos
Jürgen Blum
Technische Universität Braunschweig