Machine learning applied to simulations of collisions between rotating, differentiated planets.

Unlabelled: In the late stages of terrestrial planet formation, pairwise collisions between planetary-sized bodies act as the fundamental agent of planet growth. These collisions can lead to either growth or disruption of the bodies involved and are largely responsible for shaping the final characteristics of the planets. Despite their critical role in planet formation, an accurate treatment of collisions has yet to be realized.

Formation of giant planets by fragmentation of protoplanetary disks.

The evolution of gravitationally unstable protoplanetary gaseous disks has been studied with the use of three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations with unprecedented resolution. We have considered disks with initial masses and temperature profiles consistent with those inferred for the protosolar nebula and for other protoplanetary disks. We show that long-lasting, self-gravitating protoplanets arise after a few disk orbital periods if cooling is efficient enough to maintain the temperature close to 50 K.